CIHM 
Microfiche 
Series 
(Monographs) 


IC[\AH 

Collection  de 
microfiches 
(monographies) 


[^ 


Carwdton  InttitHM  tor  Historical  MIcroroproduction*  /  Initltut  Canadian  da  microraproduetlona  hittoriquaa 


1995 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  technique  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  tias  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibliographlcally  unique,  w'llch  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 

[^      Coloured  covers  / 
— '      Couverture  de  couleur 

I     I     Covers  damaged  / 

' — '      Couverture  endommag^ 

I     I      Covers  restored  an*or  laminated  / 
Couverture  restaur^  et/ou  pelliculee 

I     I      Cover  title  missing  /  Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

|7[      Coloured  maps/ Cartes  geographiques  en  couleur 

\y\      Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  l)lue  or  black)  / 

Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  nolle) 

1^     Coteured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 
Planches  et/ou  Illustrations  en  couleur 

I     I      Bound  with  other  material  / 

Relie  avec  d'autres  documents 

I     I     Only  edition  available/ 
I — I      Seule  edition  disponible 

I  I  Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin  /  La  reiiure  serr*e  peut 
causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la  distorston  le  long  de 
la  marge  int^rieure. 

I  I  Blank  leaves  added  during  restoiatkMis  may  appear 
within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  have 
been  omitted  from  filming  /  II  se  peut  que  ceitaines 
pages  blanches  ajouttes  lors  d'une  restauration 
apparalssent  dans  le  texte,  mais,  kxsque  cela  itait 
possUe,  cas  pages  n'ont  pas  «ti  fMmies. 


I  'Institut  a  microfllme  le  meilleur  examplaire  au'il  iul  a 
«e  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plalre  qui  sont  peut-etrp  uniques  du  point  de  vue  blbli- 
ographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  Image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifications  dans  la  meth- 
ode  normale  de  filmage  sont  Indiques  cl-dessous. 

I     I      Coloured  pages/ Pages  de  couleur 

r^     Pages  damaged/ Pages endommag^es 

I     I      Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
—      Pages  restaurtes  et/ou  pellKUiees 

r^     Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed  / 

Pages  d6color6es,  tachetees  ou  piquees 

I     I      Pages  detached/ Pages  detachees 

r^     Showthrough/ Transparence 

I     I      Quality  of  print  varies  / 

' — '      Qualite  inhale  de  I'impression 

I     I      Includes  supplementary  material/ 

Comprend  du  materiel  suppl^mentaire 

rpr  Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  relilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image  /  Les  pages 
totalement  ou  partiellement  obscurcies  par  un 
leuillet  d'enata,  une  pelure,  etc.,  ont  i\i  tilmtes 
i  nouveau  de  fafon  k  obtenir  la  mellleure 
Image  possiljle. 

r~]  Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 
discolourations  are  filmed  twice  to  ensure  the 
best  possible  image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant 
ayant  des  colorations  variables  ou  des  dteol- 
orations  sont  lilmtes  deux  tois  afin  d'obtenir  la 
meilleur  image  possible. 


D 


AddtkKial  comments  / 
Commentaiies  suppMmsntaires: 


Thit  inm  is  f ilmad  it  tht  rtduetion  ratio  diMkad  bilow/ 

C<  dociMnant  «i<  f  ilmi  ni  uu«  dt  rMuctien  indiqii*  ei-dtuow. 


10X 

ux 

tix 

ax 

MX 

XX 

c: 

J 

12X 

1«X 

20X 

24  x 

^MMd 

»x 

'—^ 

m 


3JX 


Tha  copy  filmad  har*  ha*  baan  raproduead  thanka 
to  tha  ganaroaity  of: 

McUnmn  Library 
McGIII  Univartity 
Montraal 

Tha  Imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  baat  quality 
poaaibia  eonaidaring  tha  condition  and  laglblllty 
of  tha  original  copy  and  In  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spaciflcatlona. 


L'axamplaira  fllm«  fut  raprodult  grtca  i  la 
gtntroait*  da: 

McLannan  Library 

McGHI  Unnartity 

Montraal 

Laa  Imagaa  auhrantaa  ont  tut  raproduitaa  avac  la 
plua  grand  aoln,  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattatt  da  l'axamplaira  film*,  at  an 
conformity  avac  laa  eondltlona  du  eontrat  da 
fiimaga. 


Original  copla*  In  prtntad  papor  eovara  aia  fllmad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad  or  llluatratad  Impraa- 
tion.  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  filmad  baginning  on  tha 
firat  paga  with  a  printad  or  llluatratad  impraa- 
alon.  and  anding  on  tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad 
or  llluatratad  impraaalon. 


Tha  laat  racordad  frama  on  aach  microflcha 
ahall  contain  tha  aymbol  ^»- (moaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  tha  aymbol  ▼  Imaaning  "END"), 
whichavar  appllaa. 

Mapa,  plataa,  charta,  ate.,  may  bo  fllmad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratioa.  Thoaa  too  larga  to  ba 
antiraly  Includad  In  ona  axpoaura  ata  fllmad 
baginning  In  tha  uppar  laft  hand  comar,  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  aa  many  framaa  aa 
raqulrad.  Tha  following  diagrama  llluatrata  tha 
mathod: 


Laa  axamplalraa  origlnaux  dont  la  couvartura  an 
paplar  aat  imprlmta  aont  fllmia  an  commandant 
par  la  pramlar  plat  at  an  tarminant  toit  par  la 
damMra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'Impraaaion  ou  d'illuatration.  toit  par  la  tacond 
plat,  aalon  la  eaa.  Toua  laa  autraa  axamplalraa 
origlnaux  aont  fllmia  an  eommanfant  par  la 
pramMra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'Impraaaion  ou  d'HIuatration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darnMra  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 

Un  daa  aymbolaa  auhrantt  apparaltra  tur  la 
damMra  imaga  da  chaqua  microflcha,  aalon  la 
caa:  la  aymbola  — »■  aignifia  "A  SUIVRE  ".  la 
aymbola  ▼  algnifia  "FIN". 

Laa  cartaa.  planchaa,  tablaaux,  ate.,  pauvant  ttra 
nimtt  i  daa  taux  da  rMuctlon  dlff«ranta. 
Loraqua  la  documant  aat  trop  grand  pour  ttra 
raprodult  an  un  taul  cUeht,  II  aat  film*  t  partir 
da  i'angia  aupMaur  gaueha,  da  gaucha  t  droKa, 
•t  da  haut  an  baa,  an  pranant  la  nombra 
d'Imagaa  n«caaaalra.  Laa  diagrammaa  auivanta 
llluatrant  la  mithoda. 


1  2  3 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

Miciocorr  '^esowtion  tbt  chait 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


112 


23 
2.2 


if'  u& 


^  APPLIED  M/V3E     Inc 

^^  1E53  Eosl  titain  Stmt 

t^K  Rochesttr.   Na*   York         U609        USA 

S  ("^)   ^2  -  0200  -  Phone 

S  C'B)  2M-59e9  -Fax 


^  i'ATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMEB^ 


C£ 


ABBAHAH  LINCOLN  EDITION 
VOLUME    21 

THE  CHRONICLES 

OF  AMERICA  SERIES 

ALLEN  JOHNSON 

EDITOR 

GERHARD  R.  LOMER 

CHARLES  W.  JEFFERYS 

ASSISTANT  EDITORS 


THE  PATHS  OF 
INLAND  COMMERCE 

A  ("HRONICLE  OF 

IKAfL,   UOAD,   AND    MAT!  R\V\V 

BY  ARCHES   B.  IHLBKRT 


HAVKN:    VAf.,B    rNTVKn^ITY    PUESS 
"J-VTOt   GI.*SfiOW.    URudi;    it    CO. 
HON:    lU'MPHliEY    MILFOHO 


* 


THE  PATHS  OF 
INLAND  COMMERCE 

A  CHRONICLE  OF 

TBAIL,  ROAD,  AND   WATERWAY 

BY  ARCHER  B.  HULBERT 


NEW  HAVEN!  YALE   nNIVEHSITY   PRESS 

TORONTO:  GLASGOW,    BROOK    &   CO. 

LONDON:    HUMPHREY    MILFORD 

OXFORD    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

19S0 


E18  CSS  V.21 

Hulbart,  Archer  Butlsr, 

Th^aths  of  inland  commerce 


7111674S 


"'clENNJIN  UBMIir 
KAl  UNIVQISITy 


Copyright,  19S0,  by  Kate  Vnivenity  Preu 


PREFACE 

If  the  great  American  novel  is  ever  written,  I  haz- 
ard the  guess  that  its  plot  will  be  woven  around  the 
theme  of  American  transportation,  for  that  has 
been  the  vital  factor  in  the  national  development  of 
the  United  States.    Every  problem  in  the  building 
of  the  RepubUc  has  been,  in  the  last  analysis,  a 
problem  in  transportation.    The  author  of  such  a 
novel  will  find  a  rich  fund  of  material  in  the  per- 
petual rivalries  of  pack-horseman  and  wagoner,  of 
riverman  and  canal  boatman,  of  steamboat  pro- 
moter and  railway  capitalist.    He  will  find  at  every 
point  the  old  jostling  and  challenging  the  new: 
pack-horsemen  demolishing  wagons  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Alleghany  traffic;  wagoners  deriding 
Clinton's  Ditch ;  angry  boatmen  anxious  to  ram  the 
paddle  wheels  of  Fulton's  Clermont,  which  threat- 
ened their  monopoly.    Such  opposition  has  always 
been  an  incident  of  progress;  and  even  in  this  new 
country,  receptive  as  it  was  to  new  ideas,  the  Wash- 
ingtons,  the  Fitches,  the  Fultons,  the  Coopers,  and 

Tii 


346747 


'"»  PREFACE 

the  Whitneys,  who  saw  visioiu  and  dKamed 
dreams,  all  had  to  face  scepticism  and  hostility 
from  those  whom  they  would  serve. 


A.  B.  H. 


WOBCBSTEB,  M4H., 

June,  1919. 


CONTENTS 


1.    THE  MAN  WHO  CAUGHT  THE  VISION 
II.    THE  BED  HAN'S  TBAIL 

III.  THE  MASTERY  OF  THE  RIVEBS 

IV.  A  NATION  ON  WHEELS 
V.     THE  FLATBOAT  AGE 

VI.    THE  PASSING  SHOW  OF  1800 
VII.    THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  STEAMBOAT 
VIII.    THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  ALLEGHANIES 
IX.    THE  DAWN  OF  THE  IRON  AGE 
X.    THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  LAKES 
XL    THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 
INDEX 


'•«•     1 
1« 
M 
44 
6« 
81 
100 
Il« 
184 
I«4 
174 
1»T 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  CONESTOGA  WAGON 

Photograph  from  the  original  in  the  N». 


tional  MuKum.  Waihiogton. 


Fronlifua 


TEANSPORTATION  ROUTES,  1784-18.10        FactH,, 

A  FLATBOAT,  SUCH  AS  WAS  USED  ON  THE 
OHIO  AND  MISSISSIPPI  RIVERS.  SOME- 
TIMES CA'v,ED  AN  ARK,  A  VOITUBE. 
OB  A  BHOADHOHN 
Engraving,  from  a  drawing  made  in  I7M.  in 
Victor  CoIIof.  Ko»a».  dant  rAmmgus  Stp- 
Intrionale,  published  in  Parii.  18M.    In  the 
New  Yorit  Public  Library. 

MODEL  OP  JOHN  PITCH'S  STEAMBOAT 
1707  ' 

In  the  collection  of  the  New  York  HUtorical 
Society.  „        „ 

ROBERT  FULTON'S  FIRST  STEAMBOAT 
Drawing  by  Richard  Varick  DeWitt.  In  the 
collection  of  the  New  York  HUtorical  Society. 
■The  inscription  on  the  drawing  states  that 
the  v  ■>er  picture  represents  the  Clermont  ai 
•he  was  used  for  a  packet-boat  in  1807.  drawn 
from  personal  recollection  and  description  of 
persons  who  traveled  in  the  boat.  It  was 
about  too  feet  long,  propelled  by  a  cross-head 
bell-ctaak  engine  of  M  h  «e-power,  made  by 
11 


»i 


lOt 


d 


nXDSTRATIONS 


W»tt  and  Boulton.  During  the  next  winter 
the  veuel  was  enlarged  to  about  150  feet  in 
length  and  18  feet  in  width,  and  the  wheels 
were  placed  within  the  hull.  The  original 
engines  were  retained.  It  was  named  the 
iVorrt  Ricer  of  Clermont,  and  its  appearance 
IS  shown  in  the  lower  picture.  Accompany- 
ing the  inscription  is  the  fallowing  certifica- 
tion: 

"I,  Biley  Bartholomew,  for  some  time  an 
officer  of  the  Steamboat  North  River  of 
Clermont,  certify  the  above  to  be  a  correct 
representation  of  that  vessel. 

"RiLET  Bartholomew. 


"Albany,  September,  1858." 


Facing  page  ii2 


THE  STEAMER  YELLOWSTONE,  ON  THE 
MISSOURI  RIVER 
The  first  vessel  that  successfully  navigated 
the  river;  built  and  operated  by  the  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company.  Engraving  after  a  draw- 
ing by  Charles  Bodmer,  in  Trateli  in  the 
Inter  yr(f  North  America.  In  the  New  York 
Public  Library. 


178 


THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 


CHAPTER  I 


THE  MAN   WHO  CAUGHT  THE  VISIOH 

Inland  America,  at  the  birth  of  the  Republic,  was 
as  great  a  mystery  to  the  average  dweller  on  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  as  the  elephant  was  to  the  blind 
men  of  Hindustan.  The  reports  of  those  who  had 
penetrated  this  wilderness — of  those  who  had  seen 
the  barren  ranges  of  the  AUeghanies,  the  fertile 
uplands  of  the  Unakas,  the  luxuriant  blue-grass 
regions,  the  rich  bottom  lands  of  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi,  the  wide  shores  of  the  inland  seas,  or 
the  stretches  of  prairie  increasing  in  width  beyond 
the  Wabash — seemed  strangely  contradictory,  and 
no  one  had  been  able  to  patch  these  reports  to- 
gether and  grasp  the  real  proportions  of  the  giant 
inland  empire  that  had  become  a  part  of  the  United 
States.    It  was  a  pathless  desert;  it  was  a  maze 


8  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
of  trails,  trodden  out  by  deer,  buffalo,  and  Indian. 
Its  great  riverways  were  broad  avenues  for  voy- 
agers and  explorers;  they  were  treacherous  gorges 
fiUed  with  the  plunder  of  a  million  floods.  It 
was  a  rich  soil,  a  land  of  plenty;  the  natives  were 
seldom  more  than  a  day  removed  from  starvation. 
Within  its  broad  confines  could  dwell  agreat  people; 
but  it  was  as  inaccessible  as  the  interior  .*  China.' 
It  had  a  great  commercial  future;  yet  its  gigantic 
distances  and  natural  obst:  actions  defied  all  known 
means  of  transportation. 

Such  were  the  varied  and  contradictory  stories 
told  by  the  men  who  had  entered  the  portals  of  in- 
land America.    It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that 
theories  and  prophecies  about  the  interior  were 
vague  and  conflicting  nor  that  most  of  the  schemes 
of  statesmen  and  financiers  for  the  development  of 
the  West  were  all  parts  and  no  whole.    They  all 
agreed  as  to  the  vast  richness  of  that  inland  realm 
and  took  for  granted  an  immense  commerce  therein 
that  was  certain  to  yield  enormous  profits.    In  far- 
away Paris,  the  ingenious  diplomat,  Silas  Deane, 
writing  to  the  Secret  Committee  of  Congress  in 
1776,  pictured  the  Old  Northwest  —  bounded  by 
the  Ohio,  the  AUeghanies,  the  Great  Lakes,  and 
the  Mississippi  —  as  paying  the  whole  expense  of 


THE  MAN  WHO  CAUGHT  THE  VISION  S 
the  Revolutionary  War. '  Thomas  Paine  in  1780 
drew  specifications  for  a  SUte  of  from  twenty  to 
thirty  millions  of  acres  lying  west  of  Virginia  and 
south  of  the  Ohio  River,  the  sale  of  which  land 
would  pay  the  cost  of  three  years  of  the  war. '  On 
the  other  hand.  Pelatiah  Webster,  patriotic  econo- 
mist that  he  was.  decried  in  1781  all  schemes  to 
"pawn"  this  vast  westward  region;  he  likened  such 
plans  to  "killing  the  goose  that  laid  an  egg  every 
day.  in  order  to  tear  out  at  once  all  that  was  in 
her  belly."  He  advocated  the  township  system 
of  compact  and  regular  settlement;  and  he  argued 
that  any  State  making  a  cession  of  land  would  reap 
great  benefit  "from  the  produce  and  trade"  of  the 
newly  created  settlements. 

There  were  mooted  many  other  schemes.    Gen- 
eral Rufus  Putnam,  for  example,  advocated  the 

,«nct,on  oftheOhio  a„d  the  Mi„i„ippi  to  .  con,p.„/„„  L  con! 

V  '°"  H  ^fl'T"^  ''^'"'  ■'"»"''  ^  «'"«'  »»  "  """in  «v« 
y™«.  He  .dded  that  „  thi.  company  would  be  in  .  ««.t  degree 
»n.merc,ai.  the  e.tabl«hing  of  ™n.merce  at  the  junclToTof  th^ 
large  nver,  would  .mmedUtely  give  a  value  to  all  the  luida  rituated 
on  or  near  them.  "u»<.<^ 

.Paine  thought  that  while  the  new  SUte  could  «nd  it.  export, 
from  the  Ea.t  through  CheMpeake  Bay  beeauM  the  current  of  the 


4  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
Pickering  or  "Army"  plan  of  occupying  the  Wert; 
he  wanted  a  fortified  line  to  the  Great  Lakes,  in 
case  of  war  with  England,  and  fortifications  on  the 
Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  in  case  Spain  should 
interrupt  the  national  commerce  on  these  water- 
ways. And  Thomas  Jefferson  theorized  in  his 
study  over  the  toy  states  of  Metropotamia  and 
Polypotamia  —  brought  his 

.  .  .  trees  and  houses  out 
And  planted  cities  all  about. 

But  it  remained  for  George  Washington,  the  Vir- 
ginia planter,  to  catch,  in  something  of  its  actual 
grandeur,  the  vision  of  a  Republic  stretching  to- 
wards the  setting  sun,  bound  and  unified  by  paths 
of  inland  commerce.  It  was  Washington  who  trav- 
ersed the  long  ranges  of  the  AUeghanies,  slept  in 
the  snows  of  Deer  Park  with  no  covering  but  his 
greatcoat,  inquired  eagerly  of  trapper  and  trader 
and  herder  concerning  the  courses  of  the  Cheat,  the 
Monongahela,  and  the  Little  Kanawha,  and  who 
drew  from  these  personal  explorations  a  clear  and 
accurate  picture  of  the  future  trade  routes  by  which 
the  country  could  be  economically,  socially,  and 
nationally  united. 

Washirgton's  experience  had  peculiarly  fitted 
him  to  catch  this  vision.    Fortune  had  turned  him 


THE  MAN  WHO  CAUGHT  THE  VISION     S 
westward  as  he  left  his  mother's  knee.     First  as  a 
surveyor  for  Lord  Fairfax  in  the  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley and  later,  under  Braddock  and  Forbes,  in  the 
Minies  fighting  for  the  Ohio  against  the  French  he 
had  come  to  know  the  interior  as  it  was  known  by 
no  other  man  of  his  standing.     His  own  landed 
property  lay  largely  along  the  upper  Potomac  and 
in  and  beyond  the  Alleghanies.     Washington's  in- 
terest in  tb-"  property  was  very  real.     Those  who 
attempt  to  explain  his  early  concern  with  the  West 
as  purely  altruistic  must  misread  his  numerous 
letters  and  diaries.     Nothing  in  his  unofficial  char- 
acter shows  more  plainly  than  his  business  enter- 
prise and  acumen.     On  one  occasion  he  wrote  to  his 
agent,  Crawford,  concerning  a  proposed  land  specu- 
lation: "I  recommend  that  you  keep  this  whole 
matter  a  secret  or  trust  it  only  to  those  in  whom 
you  can  confide.     If  the  scheme  I  am  now  propos- 
ing to  you  were  known,  it  might  give  alarm  to 
others,  and  by  putting  them  on  a  plan  of  the  same 
nature,  before  we  could  lay  a  proper  foundation 
for  success  ourselves,  set  the  different  interests 
clashing  and  in  the  end  overturn  the  whole."     Nor 
can  it  be  denied  that  Washington's  attitude  to  the 
commercial  development  of  the  West  was  char- 
acterized in  his  early  days  by  a  narrow  colon' J 


«     THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

partisanship.  He  was  a  stout  Virginian;  and  all 
rtout  Virginians  of  that  day  refused  to  admit  the 
pretensions  of  other  colonies  to  the  land  beyond 
the  mountains. 

But  from  no  man  could  the  shackles  of  self- 
interest  and  provincial  rivalry  drop  more  quickly 
than  they  dropped  from  Washington  when  he 
found  his  country  free  after  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  He  then  began  to  consider  how  that 
country  might  grow  and  prosper.  And  he!*  began 
to  preach  the  new  doctrine  of  expansion  and  unity. 
This  new  doctrine  first  appears  in  a  letter  which  he 
wrote  to  the  Marquis  de  Chastellux  in  1783,  after 
a  tour  from  his  camp  at  Newburg  into  central  New 
York,  where  he  had  explored  the  headwaters  of  the 
Mohawk  and  the  Susquehanna:  "I  could  not  help 
taking  a  more  extensive  view  of  the  vast  inland 
navigation  of  these  United  States  [the  letter  runs] 
and  could  not  but  be  struck  by  the  immense  extent 
and  importance  of  it,  and  of  the  goodness  of  that 
Providence  which  has  dealt  its  favors  to  us  with  so 
profuse  a  hand.  Would  to  God  we  may  have  wis- 
dom enough  to  improve  them.  I  shall  not  rest  con- 
tented till  I  have  explored  the  Western  country, 
and  traversed  those  lines,  or  great  part  of  them, 
which  have  given  bounds  to  a  new  empire." 


THE  MAN  WHO  CAUGHT  THE  VISION  7 
"The  vast  inland  navigation  of  these  United 
States ! "  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  Washington 
should  have  had  his  first  glimpse  of  this  vision  from 
the  strategic  valley  of  the  Mohawk,  which  was  soon 
to  rival  his  beloved  Potomac  as  an  improved  com- 
mercial route  from  the  seaboard  to  the  West,  and 
which  was  finally  to  achieve  an  unrivaled  superior- 
ity in  the  days  of  the  Erie  Canal  and  the  Twentieth 
Century  Limited. 

We  may  understand  something  of  what  the  lure 
of  the  West  meant  to  Washington  when  we  learn 
that  m  order  to  carry  out  his  proposed  journey 
after  the  Revolution,  he  was  compelled  to  refuse 
urgent  invitations  to  visit  Europe  and  be  the  guest 
of  Prance.     "I  found  it  indispensably  necessary." 
he  writes,  "to  visit  my  Landed  property  West  of 
the  Apalacheon  Mountains.  ...    One  object  of 
my  journey  being  to  obtain  information  of  the 
nearest  and  best  communication  between  Eastern 
&  Western  waters;  &  to  facilitate  as  much  as  in  me 
lay  the  Inland  Navigation  of  the  Potomack  " 

On  September  1. 1784.  Washington  set  out  from 
Mount  Vernon  on  his  journey  to  the  West.    Even 
thr  least  romantic  mind  must  feel  a  thrill  in  pictur- 
ing this  solitary  horseman,  the  victor  of  Yorktown 
threading  the  trails  of  the  Potomac,  passing  on  by 


8     THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

Cumberland  and  Fort  Necessity  and  Braddock's 
grave  to  the  Monongahela.    The  man,  now  at  the 
height  of  his  fame,  is  retracing  the  trails  of  his  boy- 
hood —  covering  groimd  over  which  he  had  passed 
as  a  young  oflScer  in  the  last  English  and  French 
war  —  but  he  is  seeing  the  land  in  so  much  larger 
perspective  that,  although  his  diary  is  voluminous, 
the  reader  of  those  pages  would  not  know  that 
Washington  had  been  this  way  before.    Concern- 
ing Great  Meadows,  where  he  first  saw  the  "bright 
face  of  danger"  and  whifh  he  once  described  glee- 
fully as  "a  charming  place  for  an  encounter,"  he 
now  significantly  remarks:  "The  upland.  East  of 
the  meadow,  is  good  for  grain."    Changed  are  the 
ardent  dreams  that  filled  the  young  man's  heart 
when  he  wrote  to  his  mother  from  this  region  that 
singing  bullets  "have  truly  a  charming  sound." 
Today,  as  he  looks  upon  the  flow  of  Youghiogheny, 
he  sees  it  reaching  out  its  finger  tips  to  Potomac's 
tributaries.    He  perceives  a  similar  movement  all 
along  the  chain  of  the  Alleghanies:  on  the  west  are 
the     reat  Lakes  and  the  Ohio,  aniJ  reaching  out 
towards  them  from  the  east,  waiting  to  be  joined 
by  portage  road  and  canal,  are  the  Hudson,  the 
Susquehanna,  the  Potomac,  and  the  James.     He 
foresees  these  streams  bearing  to  the  Atlantic  ports 


THE  MAN  WHO  CAUGHT  THE  VISION  9 
the  golden  produce  of  the  interior  and  carrying 
back  to  the  interior  the  manufactured  goods  of 
the  seaboard.  He  foresees  the  Republic  becoming 
homogeneous,  rich,  and  happy.  "  Open  all  the  com- 
munication which  nature  has  aflForded,"  he  wrote 
Henry  Lee,  "between  the  Atlantic  States  and  the 
Western  territory,  and  encourage  the  use  of  them 
to  the  utmost  .  .  .  and  sure  I  am  there  is  no  other 
tie  by  which  they  will  long  form  a  link  in  the  chain 
of  Federal  Union." 

Crude  as  were  the  material  methods  by  which 
Washington  hoped  to  accomplish  this  end,  in  spirit 
he  saw  the  very  America  that  we  know  today;  and 
he  marked  out  accurately  the  actual  pathways  of 
inlai ')  commerce  that  have  played  their  part  in  the 
making  of  America.  Taking  the  city  of  Detroit  as 
the  key  position,  commercially,  he  traced  the  main 
lines  of  int  jrnal  trade.  He  foresaw  New  York  im- 
proving her  natural  line  of  communication  by  way 
of  the  Mohawk  and  the  Niagara  frontier  on  Lake 
Erie  —  the  present  line  of  the  Erie  Canal  and  the 
New  York  Centra!  Railway.  For  'ennsylvania, 
he  pointed  out  the  importance  of  linking  the  Schuyl- 
kill and  the  Susquehanna  and  of  opening  the  two 
avenues  westward  to  Pittsburgh  and  to  Lake  Erie. 
In  general,  he  thus  forecast  the  Pennsylvania  Canal 


10    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

and  the  Pennsylvania  and  the  Erie  railways.  For 
Maryland  and  Virginia  he  indicated  the  Potomac 
route  as  the  nearest  for  all  the  trade  of  the  Ohio 
Valley,  with  the  route  by  way  of  the  James  and 
the  Great  Kanawha  as  an  alternative  for  the  settle- 
ments on  the  lower  Ohio.  His  vision  here  was  real- 
ized in  a  later  day  by  the  Potomac  and  the  Chesa- 
peake and  Ohio  Canal,  the  Cumberland  Road,  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railway,  and  by  the  James- 
Kanawha  Turnpike  and  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio 
Railway. 

Washington's  general  conclusions  are  stated  in  a 
summary  at  the  end  of  his  Journal,  which  was  re- 
produced in  his  classic  letter  to  Harrison,  written 
in  1784.  His  fir«t  point  is  that  every  State  which 
had  water  routes  reaching  westward  could  enhance 
the  value  of  its  lands,  increase  its  commerce,  and 
quiet  the  democratic  turbulence  of  its  shut-in  pio- 
neer communities  by  the  improvement  of  its  river 
transportation.  Taking  Pennsylvania  as  a  specific 
example,  he  declared  that  "there  are  one  hundred 
thousand  souls  West  of  the  Laurel  Hill,  who  are 
groaning  under  the  inconveniences  of  a  long  land 
transportation.  .  .  .  If  this  cannot  be  made  easy 
for  them  to  Philadel  hia  .  .  .  they  will  seek  a 
mart  elsewhere.  ...    An  opposition  on  the  part 


THE  B£AN  WHO  CAUGHT  THK  VISION  U 
of  [that]  government  .  .  .  would  ultimately  bring 
on  a  separation  between  its  Eastern  and  Western 
settlements;  towards  which  there  is  not  wanting  a 
disposition  at  this  moment  in  that  part  of  it  beyond 
the  mountains." 

Washington's  second  proposal  was  the  achieve- 
ment of  a  new  and  lasting  conquest  of  the  West  by 
binding  it  to  the  seaboard  with  chains  of  commerce. 
He  thus  states  his  point:  "No  well  informed  mind 
need  be  told  that  the  flanks  and  rear  of  the  United 
territory  are  possessed  by  other  powers,  and  for- 
midable ones  too  —  nor  how  necessary  it  is  to  ap- 
ply the  cement  of  interest  to  bind  all  parts  of  it 
together,  by  one  indissoluble  bond  —  particularly 
the  middle  States  with  the  Country  immediately 
back  of  them  —  for  what  ties  let  me  ask,  should  we 
have  upon  those  people;  and  how  entirely  uncon- 
nected should  we  be  with  them  if  the  Spaniards  on 
their  right  or  Great  Britain  on  their  left,  instead  of 
throwing  stumbling  blocks  in  their  way  as  they  do 
now.  should  invite  their  trade  and  seek  alliances 
with  them?" 

Some  of  the  pictures  in  Washington's  vision  re- 
veal, in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  an  almost 
uncanny  prescience.  He  very  plainly  prophesied 
the  international  rivalry  for  the  trade  of  the  Great 


12    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
Lakes  zone,  embodied  today  in  the  Welland  and 
the  Erie  canals.    He  declared  the  possibility  of 
navigating  with  ocean-going  vessels  the  tortuous 
two-thousand-mile  channel  of  the  Ohio  and  the 
Mississippi  River;  and  within  sixteen  years  ships 
left  the  Ohio,  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  sailed  into 
the  Mediterranean.    His  description  of  a  possible 
insurrection  of  a  western  community  might  well 
have  been  written  later;  it  might  almost  indeed  have 
made  a  page  of  his  diary  after  he  became  President 
of  the  United  States  and  during  the  Whiskey  In- 
surrection in  western  Pennsylvania.    He  approved 
and  encouraged  Rumsey's  mechanical  invention 
for  propelling  boats  against  the  stream,  showing 
that  he  had  a  glimpse  of  what  was  to  follow  after 
Fitch,  Rumsey,  and  Fulton  should  have  overcome 
the  mighty  currents  of  the  Hudson  and  the  Ohio 
with  the  steamboat's  paddle  wheel.    His  proposal 
that  Congress  should  undertake  a  survey  of  west- 
em  rivers  for  the  purpose  of  giving  people  at  laige 
a  knowledge  of  their  possible  importance  as  avenues 
of  commerce  was  a  forecast  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark 
expedition  as  well  as  of  the  policy  of  the  Gov- 
ernment today  for  the  improvement  of  the  great 
inland  rivers  and  harbors. 
"  The  destinies  of  our  country  run  east  and  west 


THE  MAN  WHO  CAUGHT  THE  VISION  IS 
Intercourse  between  the  mighty  interior  west  and 
the  sea  coast  is  the  great  principle  of  our  commer- 
dal  prosperity."  These  are  the  words  of  Edward 
Everett  in  advocating  the  Boston  and  Albany 
Railroad.  In  effect  Washington  had  uttered  those 
same  words  half  a  century  earlier  when  he  gave 
momentum  to  an  era  filled  with  energetic  but  un- 
successful efforU  to  join  with  the  waters  of  the 
West  the  rivers  reaching  inland  from  the  Atlantic. 
The  fact  that  American  engineering  science  had 
not  in  his  day  reached  a  point  where  it  could  cope 
with  this  problem  successfully  should  in  no  wise 
lessen  our  admiration  for  the  man  who  had  thus 
caught  the  vision  of  a  nation  united  and  unified  by 
improved  methods  of  transportation. 


CHAPTER  n 


THE  BED   atAN's  TRAIL 

FoK  the  beginnings  of  the  paths  of  our  inland  com- 
merce, we  must  look  far  back  into  the  dim  prehis- 
toric agej  of  America.  The  earliest  routes  that 
threaded  the  continent  were  the  streams  and  the 
tracks  beaten  out  by  the  heavier  four-footed  ani- 
mals. The  Indian  hunter  followed  the  migrations 
of  the  animals  and  the  streams  that  would  float  his 
light  canoe.  Today  the  main  lines  of  travel  and 
transportation  for  the  most  part  still  cling  to  these 
primeval  pathways. 

In  their  wanderings,  man  and  beast  alike  sought 
the  heights,  the  passes  that  pierced  the  mountain 
chains,  and  the  headwaters  of  navigable  rivers. 
On  the  ridges  the  forest  growth  was  lightest  and 
there  was  little  obstruction  from  fallen  timber;  rain 
and  frost  caused  least  damage  by  erosion;  and  the 
winds  swept  the  trails  clear  of  leaves  in  summer  and 
of  snow  in  winter.  Here  lay  the  easiest  paths  for 
u 


THE  RED  MAN'S  TRAIL  is 

the  heavy,  blundering  buffalo  and  t  le  roving  .  Vi 
and  moose  and  deer.  Here,  high  ip  in  the  siji, 
where  the  outlook  was  unobstructed  'n-'  si.Tiial  fires 
could  be  seen  from  every  direction,  on  the  longest 
watersheds,  curving  around  river  and  swamp,  ran 
the  earliest  travel  routes  of  the  aboriginal  inhabit- 
ants and  of  their  successors,  the  red  men  of  historic 
times.  For  their  encampments  and  towns  these 
peoples  seem  to  have  preferred  the  more  sheltered 
ground  along  the  smaller  streams;  but,  when  they 
fared  abroad  to  hunt,  to  trade,  to  wage  war,  to  seek 
new  material  for  pipe  and  amulet,  they  followed  in 
the  main  the  highest  ways. 

If  in  imagination  one  surveys  the  eastern  half 
of  the  North  American  continent  from  one  of  the 
strategic  passageways  of  the  Alleghanies,  say  from 
Cumberland  Gap  or  from  above  Kittanning  Gorge, 
the  outstanding  feature  in  the  picture  will  be 
the  Appalachian  barrier  that  separates  the  interior 
from  the  Atlantic  coast.  To  the  north  lie  the 
Adirondacks  and  the  Berkshire  Hills,  hedging  New 
England  in  close  to  the  ocean.  Two  glittering 
waterways  lie  east  and  west  of  these  heights  —  the 
Connecticut  and  the  Hudson.  Upon  the  valleys 
of  these  two  rivers  converged  the  two  deeply  worn 
pathways    of   the   Puritan,   the  Old  Bay  Path 


16  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
and  the  Connecticut  Path.  By  way  of  Westfield 
River,  that  silver  tributary  which  joins  the  Con- 
necticut at  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  the  Bay 
Path  surmounted  the  Berkshire  highlands  and 
united  old  Massachusetts  to  the  upper  Hudson 
Valley  near  Fort  Orange,  now  Albany. 

Here,  north  of  the  CatskiUs,  the  Appalachian 
barrier  subsides  and  gives  New  York  a  supreme  ad- 
vantage over  all  the  other  Atlantic  States  —  a  level 
route  to  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  West.  The  Mo- 
hawk River  threads  the  smiling  landscape;  beyond 
lies  the  "Finger  Lake  country"  and  the  valley  of 
the  Genesee.  Through  this  romantic  region  ran  the 
Mohawk  Trail,  sending  offshoots  to  Lakf  Cham- 
plain  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  to  the  Susquehanna, 
and  to  the  Allegheny.  A  few  names  have  been 
altered  in  the  course  of  years  —  the  Bay  Path  is 
now  the  Boston  and  Albany  Raiboad,  the  Mohawk 
Trail  is  the  New  York  Central,  and  Fort  Orange  is 
Albany  —  and  thus  we  may  tell  in  a  dozen  words 
the  story  of  three  centuries. 

Upon  Fort  Orange  converged  the  score  of  land 
and  water  pathways  of  the  fur  trade  of  our  North. 
These  Indian  trade  routes  were  slowly  widened  in- 
to colonial  roads,  notably  the  Mohawk  and  Catskill 
turnpikes,  and  these  in  turn  were  transformed  into 


THE  RED  MAN'S  TRAIL  17 

the  Erie,  Lehigh,  Nickel  Plate,  and  New  York  Cen- 
tral railways.    But  from  the  day  when  the  canoe 
and  the  keel  boat  floated  their  bulky  cargoes  of  pelts 
or  the  heavy  laden  Indian  pony  trudged  the  trail,  the 
routes  of  trade  have  been  little  or  nothing  altered. 
Traversing  the  line  of  the  Alleghanies  south- 
ward, the  eye  notes  first  the  break  in  the  wall  at  the 
Delaware  Water  Gap,  and  then  that  long  arm  of 
the  Susquehanna,  the  Juniata,  reaching  out  through 
dark  Kittanning  Gorge  to  iU  silver  playmate,  the 
dancing  Conemaugh.    Here  amid  its  leafy  aisles 
ran  the  brown  and  red  Kittanning  Trail,  the  main 
route  of  the  Pennsylvania  traders  from  the  rich 
region  of  York,  Lancaster,  and  Chambersburg.  On 
this  general  alignment  the  Broadway  Limited  flies 
today  toward  Pittsburgh  and  Chicago.    A  little  to 
the  south  another  important  pathway  from  the 
same  region  led,  by  way  of  Carlisle,  Bedford,  and 
Ligonier,  to  the  Ohio.    The  "  Highland  Trail "  the 
Indian  traders  called  it,  for  it  kept  well  on  the 
watershed  dividing  the  Allegheny  tributaries  on  the 
north  from  those  of  the  Monongahela  on  the  south. 
Farther  to  the  south  the  scene  shows  a  change, 
for  the  Atlantic  plain  widens  considerably.     The 
Potomac  River,  the  James,  the  Pedee,  and  the 
Savannah  flow  through  valleys  much  longer  than 


18    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  CO  tMERCE 

those  of  the  northern  rivers.    Here  in  the  South 
commerce  was  carried  on  mainly  by  shaUop  and 
pinnace.    The  trails  of  the  Indian  skirteJ  the 
rivers  and  offered  for  trader  and  explorer  passage- 
way to  the  West,  especially  to  the  towns  of  the 
Cherokees  in  the  southern  AUeghanies  or  Unakas; 
but  the  TCterways  and  the  roads  over  which  the 
hogsheads  of  tobacco  were  rolled  (hence  called 
"rolling  roads")  sufficed  for  the  needs  of  the  thin 
fringes  of  population  settled  along  the  rivers.  Trails 
from  Winchester  in  Virginia  and  Frederick  in 
Maryland  focused  on  Cumberland  at  the  head  of 
the  Potomac.    Beyond,  to  the  west,  the  finger  tips 
of  the  Potomac  interlocked  closely  with  the  Mo- 
nongahela  and  Youghiogheny,  and  through  this  net- 
work of  mountain  and  river  valley,  by  the  "Shades 
of  Death"  and  Great  Meadows,  coiled  Nemacolin's 
Path  to  the  Ohio.    Even  today  this  ancient  route 
is  in  part  followed  ly  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  and 
the  Western  Maryland  Railway. 

A  bird's-eye  view  of  the  southern  Alleghanies 
shows  that,  while  the  Atlantic  plain  of  Virginia  and 
the  Carolinas  widens  out,  the  mount-un  chains  in- 
crease in  number,  fold  on  fold,  from  the  Blue  Ridge 
to  the  ragged  ranges  of  the  Cumberlands.  Few 
trails  led  across  this  manifold  barrier.    There  was 


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THE  RED  MAN'S  TRAIL  19 

a  connection  at  Balcony  Falls  between  the  James 
River  and  the  Great  Kanawha;  but  as  a  trade 
route  it  was  of  no  such  value  to  tl ;  meu  of  its  day 
as  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  system  over  the  same 
couM^  to  us.  As  in  the  North,  so  in  the  South, 
trade  avoided  obstacles  by  taking  a  roundabout, 
and  often  the  longest  route.  In  order  to  double  the 
extremity  of  the  Unakas,  for  instance,  the  traib 
reached  down  by  the  Valley  of  Virginia  and  New 
River  to  the  uplands  of  the  Tennessee,  and  here, 
near  Elizabethton,  they  met  the  trails  leading  up 
the  Broad  and  the  Yadkin  rivers  from  Charleston, 
South  Carolina. 

To  the  west  rise  the  somber  heights  of  Cumber- 
land Gap.  Through  this  portal  ran  the  famous 
"Warrior's  Path,"  known  to  wandrring  hunters, 
the  "trail  of  iron"  from  Fort  Watauga  and  Fort 
Chiswell,  which  Daniel  Boone  widened  for  the  set- 
tlers of  Kentucky.  To  the  southwest  lay  the  Blue 
Grass  region  of  Tennessee  with  its  various  trails  con- 
verging on  Nashville  from  almost  every  direction. 
Today  the  Southern  Railway  enters  the  "Sapphire 
Country,"  in  which  Asheville  lies,  by  practically 
the  same  route  as  the  old  Rutherfordton  Trail 
which  was  used  for  generations  by  red  man  and 
pioneer  from  the  Carolina  coast. 


so    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

In  our  entire  region  of  the  Appalachians,  from 
the  Berkshire  Hills  southward.  pracUcaUy  tyery 
old-time  pathway  from  the  seaboard  to  the  trans- 
AUeghany  country  is  now  occupied  by  an  impor- 
tant  rafl  way  system,  with  the  exception  of  the  War- 
rior's Trail  through  Cumberland  Gap  to  central 
Ohio  and  the  Highland  Trail  across  southern  Penn- 
sylvania. And  even  Cumberland  Gap  is  accessible 
by  rail  today,  and  a  line  across  southern  Pennsyl- 
vania was  once  planned  and  partially  constructed 
only  to  be  killed  by  je  Jous  rivals. 

These  numerous  keys  to  the  Alleghanies  were  a 
chaUenge  to  the  men  of  the  seaboard  to  seize  upon 
the  rich  trade  of  the  West  which  had  been  early 
laonopolized  by  the  French  in  Canada.  But  the 
challenge  brought  its  diflScult  problems.  What  land 
canoes  could  compete  with  the  flotillas  that  brought 
their  priceless  cargoes  of  furs  each  year  to  Montreal 
and  Quebec?  What  race  of  landlubbers  could  vie 
with  the  picturesque  bands  of  fearless  voyageuri 
who  sang  their  songs  on  the  Great  Lakes,  the  Ohio, 
the  Illinois,  and  the  Mississippi? 

In  the  solution  of  this  problem  of  diverting  trade 
probably  the  factor  of  greatest  importance,  next 
to  open  pathways  through  the  mountain  barriers, 
was  the  rich  stock-breeding  ground  lying  between 


I 


THE  BED  MAN'S  TRAIL  ei 

the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna  rivew,  a  region 
occupied  by  the  settlers  familiarly  known  as  the 
Pennsylvania  Dutch.    In  this  famous  belt,  run- 
mg  from  Pennsylvania  into  Virginia,  originated  the 
historic  pack-horse  trade  with  the  "far  Indiana" 
<rf  the  OUo  Valley.    Here,  in  the  first  granary  of 
America,  Germans,  Scotch-Irish,  and  English  bred 
horses  worthy  of  the  name.  *^'Brave  fat  Horses  "  an 
amazed  oflScer  under  Braddock  called  the  mounts 
of  five  Quakers  who  unexpectedly  rode  into  camp 
as  though  straight  "from  the  land  of  Goshen." 
These  animals,  crossed  with  the  Indian  "pony" 
from  New  Spain,  produced  the  wise,  wiry,  and 
sturdy  pack-horse,  fit  to  transport  nearly  two  hun- 
dred pounds  of  merchandise  across  the  rough  and 
narrowAUeghanytrails.  This  animal  and  theheavy 
Conestoga  horse  from  the  same  breeding  ground  " 
revolutionized  inland  commerce. 

The  first  American  cow  pony  was  not  without 
his  cowboy.  Though  the  drivers  were  not  all  of 
the  same  type  and  though  the  proprietors,  so 
to  speak,  of  the  trans-Alleghany  pack-horse  trade 
came  generally  from  the  older  settlements,  the  bulk 
of  the  hard  work  was  done  by  a  lusty  army  of  men 
not  reproduced  again  in  America  until  the  pictur- 
esque figure  of  the  cow-puncher  appeared  above 


t9- 


flS  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  OOllMERCE 
the  weatern  horizon.  Thia  breed  of  men  was  nur- 
tured on  the  outer  confines  of  civilization,  along  the 
headwaters  of  the  Susquehanna,  the  Potomac,  the 
James,  and  the  Broad  —  the  country  of  the  "  Cow- 
pens."  Rough  as  the  wilderness  they  occupied, 
made  strong  by  their  diet  of  meat  and  curds,  these 
Tatars  of  the  highlands  played  a  part  in  the  com- 
mercial history  of  America  that  has  never  had  its 
historian.  In  their  knowledge  of  Indian  character, 
of  horse  and  packsaddle  lore,  of  the  forest  and  its 
trails  in  every  season,  these  men  of  the  Cowpens 
were  the  kings  of  the  old  frontier. 

An  oflScer  under  Braddock  has  left  us  one  of  the 
few  picttves  of  these  people': 

From  the  Heart  of  the  Settlements  we  are  now  got 
into  the  Cow-pens;  the  Keepers  of  these  are  very  ex- 
traordinary Kind  of  Fellows,  they  drive  up  their  Herds 
on  Horseback,  and  they  had  need  do  so,  for  their  Cattle 
are  near  as  wild  as  Deer;  a  Cow-pen  generally  consists 
of  a  very  large  Cottage  or  House  in  the  Woods,  with 
about  four-score  or  one  hundred  Acres,  inclosed  with 
high  Rails  and  divided;  a  small  Indosure  they  keep  for 
Com,  for  the  family,  the  rest  is  the  Pasture  in  which 
they  keep  their  calves;  but  the  Manner  is  far  different 
from  any  Thing  you  ever  saw;  they  may  perhaps  have 
a  Stock  of  four  or  five  hundred  to  a  thousand  Head  of 
Cattle  belonging  to  a  Cow-pen,  these  run  as  they  please 
'ExIrttU  <f  LMmfrom  an  Offiat  (London.  I7M). 


THE  HED  MAN'S  TRAIL 


a 


in  the  Great  Woods,  where  there  are  no  Inclosures  to 
stop  them.  In  the  Month  of  Marcn  the  Cows  begin 
to  drop  their  Calves,  then  the  Cow-pen  Master,  with 
all  his  Men,  rides  out  to  see  and  drive  up  the  Cows  with 
all  their  new  fallen  Calves;  they  being  weak  cannot  run 
away  so  as  to  escape,  therefore  ate  easily  drove  up,  and 
the  Bulls  and  other  Cattle  follow  them;  and  they  put 
these  Calves  into  the  Pasture,  and  every  Morning  and 
Evening  suffer  the  Cows  to  come  and  suckle  them, 
which  done  they  let  the  Cows  out  into  the  great  Woods 
to  shift  for  their  Food  as  well  as  they  can;  whilst  the 
Calf  is  sucking  one  Tit  of  the  Cow,  the  Woman  of  the 
Cow-Pen  is  milking  one  of  the  other  Tits,  so  that  she 
steals  some  Milk  from  the  Cow,  who  thinks  she  is  giv- 
ing it  to  the  Calf;  soon  as  the  Cow  begins  to  go  dry,  and 
the  Calf  grows  Strong,  they  mark  them,  if  they  are 
Males  they  cut  them,  and  let  them  go  into  the  Wood. 
Every  Year  in  September  and  October  they  drive  up 
the  Market  Steers,  that  are  fat  and  of  a  proper  Age, 
and  kill  them;  they  say  they  are  fat  in  October,  but  I 
am  sure  they  are  not  so  in  May,  June  and  July;  they 
reckon  that  out  of  100  Head  of  Cattle  they  can  kill 
about  10  or  12  steers,  and  four  or  five  Cows  a  Year;  so 
they  reckon  that  a  Cow-Pen  for  every  100  Head  of 
Cattle  brings  about  £40  Sterling  per  Year.  The 
Keepers  live  chiefly  upon  Milk,  for  out  of  their  Vast 
Herds,  they  do  condescend  to  tame  Cows  enough  to 
keq>  their  Family  in  Milk,  Whey,  Curds,  Cheese  and 
Butter;  they  also  have  Flesh  in  Abundance  such  as  it 
is,  for  they  eat  the  old  Cows  and  lean  Calves  that  are 
like  to  die.  The  Cow-Pen  Men  are  hardy  People,  are 
almost  continually  on  Horseback,  being  obliged  to 
know  the  Haunts  of  their  Cattle. 


84    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

You  see,  Sir,  what  a  wild  set  of  Creatiues  Our  Eng- 
lish Men  grow  into,  when  they  lose  Society,  and  it  is 
surprbing  to  think  how  many  Advantages  they  throw 
away,  which  our  industrious  Country-Men  would  be 
^ad  of:  Out  of  many  hundred  Cows  they  will  not 
give  themselves  the  trouble  of  milking  more  than  will 
maintain  their  Family. 

With  such  a  race  of  bom  horsemen,  every  whit 
as  bold  and  resourceful  as  the  voyageurs,  to  bear 
the  brunt  of  a  new  era  of  transportation,  all  that 
was  needed  to  challenge  French  trade  beyond  the 
Alleghanies  was  competent  and  aggressive  leader- 
ship. The  situation  called  for  men  of  means,  men 
of  daring,  men  closely  in  touch  with  governors  and 
assemblies  and  acquainted  with  the  web  of  poli- 
tics that  was  beinfe  spun  at  Philadelphia,  Williams- 
burg, New  York,  London,  and  Paris.  Generations 
of  tenacious  struggle  along  the  American  frontier 
had  developed  such  men.  The  Weisers,  Croghans, 
Gists,  Washingtons,  Franklins,  Walkers,  and  Cre- 
saps  were  men  of  varied  descent  and  nationality. 
They  had  the  cunning,  the  boldness,  and  the  re- 
sources to  undertake  successfully  the  task  of  con- 
quering commercially  the  Great  West.  They  were 
the  first  men  of  the  colonies  to  be  unafraid  of  that 
bugbear  of  the  trader.  Distance.  We  may  aptly 
call  them  the  first  Americans  because,  though  not 


THE  RED  MAN'S  TRAIL  as 

a  few  were  actually  bom  abroad,  they  were  the  first 
j     whose  plans,  spirit,  and  very  life  were  dominated  by 

I  the  vision  of  an  America  of  continental  dimensions. 
)  The  long  story  of  French  and  English  rivalry  and 
\^  of  the  war  which  ended  it  concerns  us  here  chiefly 
V    as  a  commercial  struggle.    The  French  at  Niagara 

,  (1749)  had  access  to  the  Ohio  by  way  of  Lake  Erie 
j  and  any  one  of  several  rivers — the  Allegheny,  the 
\ ',  Muskingum,  the  Scioto,  or  the  Miami.  The  main 
' !    routes  of  the  English  were  the  Nemacolin  and  Kit- 

j  tanning  paths. "  The  French,  laboring  imder  the  dis- 
j      advantages  of  the  longer  distance  over  which  their 

I I  goods  had  to  be  transported  to  the  Indians  and  of 
j    the  higher  price  necessarily  demanded  for  them, 

had  to  meet  the  competition  of  the  traders  from 
the  rival  colonies  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia^" 
each  of  them  jealous  of  and  underbidding  the  other. 
When  C^loron  de  Blainville  was  sent  to  the  Alle- 
gheny in  1749,  by  the  Governor  of  New  France,  his 
message  was  that  "the  Governor  of  Canada  desired 
his  children  on  Ohio  to  turn  away  the  English  Trad- 
ers from  amongst  them  and  discharge  them  from 
ever  coming  to  trade  there  again,  or  on  any  of  the 
Branches."  He  sent  away  all  the  traders  whom  he 
found,  giving  them  letters  addressed  to  their  respec- 
tive governors  denying  England's  right  to  trade  in 


(1/ 


88    THE  Pacts  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
OieWert.    To  offset  this  move,  within  two  year. 
Pennsylvania  sent  goods  to  the  value  of  nine  hun- 
dred pounds  in  order  to  hold  the  Indians  constant 
The  Governor  had  already  ordered  the  traders  to 
seU  whiskey  to  the  Indians  at  "5  Bucks"  per  cask 
and  had  told  the  Indians,  through  his  agent  Con- 
rad Weiser.  that  if  any  trader  refused  to  seU  the 
hquor  at  that  price  they  might  "take  it  from  him 
and  drink  it  for  nothing."    There  was  but  one  way 
for  the  French  to  meet  such  competition.    Without 
delay  they  fortified  the  Allegheny  and  began  to 
coerce  the  natives.    Driving  away  the  carpenters 
of  the  Ohio  Company  from  the  present  site  of  Pitts- 
burgh, they  built  Fort  Duquesne.    The  beginning 
of  the  Old  French  War  ended  what  we  may  caU  the 
first  era  of  the  pack-horse  trade. 

The  capture  of  Fort  Duquesne  by  the  English 
army  under  General  Forbes  in  1758  and  the  final 
conquest  of  New  France  two  years  later  removed 
the  French  barrier  and  opened  the  way  to  ex- 
pansion beyond  the  Alleghanies.  Thereafter  settle- 
ments in  the  Monongahela  country  grew  apace. 
Pittsburgh.  Uniontown.  Morgantown.  Brownsville. 
Ligomer.  Greensburg.  Connellsville  -  we  give  the 
modem  names  -  became  centers  of  a  great  migra- 
tion wWch  was  halted  only  for  aseason  by  Pontiac's 


THE  RED  MAN'S  TRAIL  tl 

Rebellion,  the  aftermath  of  the  French  War,  and 
wag  resumed  immediately  on  the  suppression  of 
that  Indian  rising.     The  pack-horse  trade  now 
entered  its  final  and  most  important  era.     The 
earlier  period  was  one  in  which  the  trade  was  con- 
fined chiefly  to  the  Indians;  the  later  phase  was 
concerned  with  supplying  the  needs  of  the  white 
man  in  his  rapidly  developing  frontier  settlements. 
Formerly  the  principal  articles  of  merchandise  for 
the  western  trade  were  guns,  ammunition,  knives, 
kettles,  and  tools  for  their  repair,  blankets,  tobacco, 
hatchets,  and  liquor.    In  the  new  era  every  known 
product  of  the  East  found  a  market  in  the  thriving 
communities  of  the  upper  Ohio.    As  time  went  on 
the  West  began  to  send  to  the  East,  in  addition  to 
skins  and  pelts,  whiskey  that  brought  a  dollar  a  gal- 
Im.    Each  pony  could  carry  sixteen  gallons  and 
every  drop  could  be  sold  for  real  money.    On  the 
return  trip  the  pack-horses  carried  back  chiefly  salt 
and  iron. 

Doddridge's  NoU»,  one  of  the  chief  sources  of 
our  information,  gives  this  lively  picture: 

In  the  faU  of  the  year,  after  seeding  time,  eveiy 
family  formed  an  association  with  some  of  their  neigh- 
bors, for  starting  the  Uttle  caravan.    A  master  driver 
j  was  to  be  selected  from  among  them,  who  was  to  be 


88    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMBIERCE 

assisted  by  one  or  more  young  men  and  aometimea  a 
boy  or  two.  The  horses  were  fitted  out  with  pack- 
saddles,  to  the  latter  part  of  which  was  fastened  a  pair 
of  hobbles  made  of  hickory  withes,  —  a  bell  and  collar 
ornamented  their  necks.  The  bags  provided  for  the 
conveyance  of  the  salt  were  fiUed  with  bread,  jerk, 
boiled  ham,  and  cheese  furnished  a  provision  for  the 
diivos.  At  night,  after  feeding,  the  horses,  whether 
put  in  pasture  or  turned  out  into  the  wood.-,  were 
hobbled  and  the  bells  were  opened.  The  barter  for 
salt  and  iron  was  made  first  at  Baltimore;  Frederick, 
Hagerstown,  Oldtown,  and  Fort  Cumberland,  in  suc- 
cep'non,  became  the  places  of  exchange.  Each  hoise 
c.t;r<i-d  two  bushels  of  alum  salt,  weighing  eighty-four 
pounds  to  the  bushel.  This,  to  be  sure,  was  not  a 
heavy  load  for  the  horses,  but  it  was  enough,  consider- 
ing the  scanty  subsistence  allowed  them  on  the  jour- 
ney. The  common  price  of  a  bushel  of  alum  salt,  at  an 
early  period,  was  a  good  cow  and  a  calf. 

Thus,  with  the  English  flag  afloat  at  Fort  Pitt, 
as  Duquesne  was  renamed  after  its  capture,  a  new 
day  dawned  for  the  great  region  to  the  West.  Be- 
yond the  Alleghanies  and  as  far  as  the  Rockies, 
a  new  science  of  transportation  was  now  to  be 
learned  —  the  art  of  finding  the  dividing  ridge. 
Here  the  first  routes,  like  the  "Great  Trail"  from 
Pittsburgh  to  Detroit,  struck  out  with  an  assur- 
ance that  is  in  marvelous  agreement  with  the  find- 
ings of  the  surveyors  of  a  later  day.    The  railways. 


THE  RED  MAN'S  TRAIL  M 

when  they  came,  found  the  valleys  and  penetrated 
with  then-  tunnels  the  watersheds  from  the  heads 
of  the  streams  of  one  drainage  area  to  the  streams 
of  another.  Thus  on  the  Pemisylvania,  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio,  the  Southern,  the  Chesapeake  and 
Ohio,  and  other  railroads,  important  tunnels  are 
to  be  found  lying  immediately  under  the  Red 
Man's  trail  which  clung  to  the  long  ascending 
slope  and  held  persistently  to  the  dividing  ridges. 

Even  this  necessarily  brief  survey  shows  plainly 
how  that  preeminently  American  institution,  the 
ridge  road,  came  about.  East  and  west,  it  was 
the  legitimate  and  natural  successor  to  the  ancient 
trail.  With  the  coming  of  the  wagon,  whose  rattle 
was  heard  among  the  hills  as  early  as  Braddock's 
campaign,  the  process  of  lowering  these  paths  from 
the  heights  was  inevitably  begtm,  and  it  was  to 
the  riverways  that  men  first  looked  for  a  solu- 
tion of  the  difficult  problems  of  inland  commerce. 
Eventually  the  paths  of  inland  commerce  consti- 
tuted a  vast  network  of  canals,  roads,  and  railway 
lines  in  those  very  valleys  to  which  Washington 
had  called  the  nation's  attention  in  1784. 


CHAPTER  m 

THK  MASTERY  OF  THE  BTVBB8 

It  would  perhaps  have  been  well,  in  the  light  <rf 
later  difficulties  and  failures,  if  the  men  who  at 
Washington's  call  undertook  to  master  the  capri- 
cious rivers  of  the  seaboard  had  studied  a  stately 
Spanish  decree  which  declared  that,  since  God  had 
not  made  the  rivers  of  Spain  navigable,  it  were 
sacrilege  for  mortals  to  attempt  to  do  so.  Even 
before  the  Revolution,  Mayor  Rhodes  of  Phila- 
delphia was  in  correspondence  with  Franklin  in 
London  concerning  the  experiences  of  European  en- 
gineers in  harnessing  foreign  streams.  That  sage 
philosopher,  writing  to  Rhodes  in  177S,  uttered  a 
clear  word  of  warning:  "rivers  are  ungovernable 
things,"  he  had  said,  and  English  engineers  "sel- 
dom or  never  use  a  River  where  it  can  be  avoided." 
But  it  was  the  birthright  of  New  World  democracy 
to  make  its  own  mistakes  and  in  so  doing  to  prove 

for  itself  the  errors  of  the  Old  World, 
to 


THE  MASTERY  OP  THE  RIVERS  81 
As  energetic  men  all  along  the  Atlantic  Plain 
now  took  up  the  problem  of  improving  the  inland 
rivers,  they  faced  a  storm  of  criticism  and  ridicule 
that  would  have  daunted  any  but  such  as  Washing- 
ton and  Johnson  of  Virginia  or  White  and  Hazard 
of  Pennsylvaniaor  Morris  and  Watson  of  New  York. 
Every  imaginable  objection  to  such  projects  was  ad- 
vanced — from  the  ine£Bciency  of  the  science  of  en- 
gineering to  the  probable  destruction  of  all  the  fish 
in  the  streams.  In  spite  of  these  discouragements, 
however,  various  men  set  themselves  to  form  in 
rapid  succession  the  Potomac  Company  in  1785, 
the  Society  for  Promoting  the  Improvement  of  In- 
land Navigation  in  1791,  the  Western  Inland  Lock 
Navigation  Company  m  1792,  and  the  Lehigh  Coal 
Mine  Company  in  1793.  A  brief  review  of  these 
various  enterprises  will  give  a  clear  if  not  a  com- 
plete view  of  the  first  era  of  inland  water  commerce 
in  America. 

The  Potomac  Company,  authorized  in  1785  by 
the  legislatures  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  received 
an  appropriation  of  $6666  from  each  State  for 
opem'ng  a  road  from  the  headwaters  of  the  Potomac 
to  either  the.  Cheat  or  the  Monongahela,  "as  com- 
missioners .  .  .  shall  find  most  convenient  and 
beneficial  to  the  Western  settlers."    This  was  the 


32  tfj:  paths  of  inland  commerce 

only  public  aid  which  the  enterprise  received;  and 
the  atiptilated  purpose  clearly  indicates  the  fact 
that,  in  the  minds  of  its  promoters,  the  transconti- 
nental character  of  the  undertaking  appeared  to  be 
vital.    The  remainder  of  the  money  required  for 
the  work  was  raised  by  public  subscription  in  the 
principal  cities  of  the  two  States.    In  this  way 
£40,300  was  subscribed,  Virginia  men  taking  266 
shares  and  Maryland  men  137  shares.    The  stock- 
holders elected  George  Washington  as  president 
of  the  company,  at  a  salary  of  thirty  shillings  a 
year,  with  four  directors  to  aid  him,  and  they  chose 
as  general  manager  James  Riuisey,  the  boat  mech- 
anician.    These  men  then  proceeded  to  attack  the 
chief  impediments  in  the  Potomac  —  the  Great 
Falls  above  Washington,  the  Seneca  Falls  at  the 
mouth  of  Seneca  CreeK,  and  the  Shenandoah  Falls 
at  Harper's  Ferry.    But,  as  they  had  difficulty  in 
obtaining  workmen  and  sufficient  liquor  to  cheer 
them  in  their  herculean  tasks,  they  made  such  slow 
progress  that  subscribers,  doubting  Washington's 
optimistic  prophecy  that  the  stock  would  increase 
in  value  twenty  per  cent,  paid  their  assessment! 
only  after  much  deliberation  or  not  at  all.    Thirty- 
six  years  later,  though  $729,380  had  been  spent  and 
lock  canals  had  been  opened  about  the  unnavigable 


)( 


THE  MASTERY  OP  THE  MVEBS  33 
■tretchea  of  the  Potomac  River,  a  commiMioii  ap- 
pointed to  examine  the  aflfairs  of  the  company  re- 
ported  "that  the  floods  and  fresheU  nevertheless 
gave  the  only  navigation  that  was  enjoyed."  As 
tot  the  road  between  the  Potomac  and  the  Cheat 
or  the  Monongahela,  the  records  at  hand  do  not 
show  that  the  money  voted  for  that  enterprise  had 
been  used.' 

The  Potomac  Company  nevertheless  had  accom- 
plished something:  it  had  acquired  an  asset  of  the 
greatest  value  -  a  right  of  way  up  the  strategic 
Potomac  VaUey;  and  it  had  furnished  an  object 
lesson  to  men  in  other  SUtes  who  were  struggling 
with  a  similar  problem,    men.  as  will  soon  be 
apparent.  New  York  men  undertook  the  improve- 
ment of  the  Mohawk  waterway  there  was  no  pat- 
tern of  canal  construction  for  them  to  follow 
in  America  except  the  inadequate  wooden  locks 
wected  along  the  Potomac.    It  is  interesting  to 
know  that  Elkanah  Watson,  prominent  in  inland 
navigation  to  the  North,  went  down  from  New 
York  in  order  to  study  these  wooden  locks  and  that 
New  Yorkers  adopted  them  as  models,  though  they 
changed  the  material  to  brick  and  finally  to  stone. 
Pennsylvania  had  been  foremost  among  the  colo^ 
mes  in  canal  buUding.  for  it  had  surveyed  as  early 


84    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  nOMMBUpg 
as  1768  the  fiist  lock  canal  in  America,  from  near 
Reading  on  the  SchuylkiU  to  Middletown  on  the 
Susquehanna.    Work,  however,  had  to  be  sus- 
pended when  Pontiac's  Rebellion  threw  the  inland 
country  into  a  panic.    But  the  enterprise  of  Siaiy- 
land  and  Virginia  in  1785  in  developing  the  Poto- 
mac aroused  the  Pennsylvanians  to  renewed  activ- 
ity.   The  Society  for  Promoting  the  Improvement 
of  Roads  and  Inland  Navigation  set  forth  a  pro- 
gramme that  was  as  broad  as  the  Keystone  State 
itself.  Theirultimateobjectwastocapturethetrade 
of  the  Great  Lakes.    "If  we  turn  our  view, "  read 
the  memorial  which  the  Society  presented  to  the 
Legislature,  "to  the  immense  territories  connected 
with  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  waters,  and  border- 
ing on  the  Great  Lakes,  it  will  appear  .  .  .  that 
our  communication  with  those  vast  countries  (con- 
sidering Fort  Pitt  as  the  port  of  entrance  upon 
them)  is  as  easy  and  may  be  rendered  as  cheap,  as 
to  any  other  port  on  the  Atlantic  tide  waters." 

Pennsylvania,  lying  between  Virginia  and  New 
York,  occupier*  a  peculiar  position.  Her  Susque- 
hanna Valley  suetched  northwest  —not  so  directly 
west  as  did  the  Potomac  on  the  south  and  the 
Mohawk  on  the  north.  This  more  northerly  trend 
led  these  early  Pennsylvania  promoters  to  believe 


THE  MASTEBY  OP  THE  RIVEBS  SS 
that,  while  thqr  might  "only  hav«  a  share  in 
the  trade  of  those  [the  Ohio]  waters."  they  could 
absolutely  secure  for  themselves  the  trade  of  the 
Great  Lakes,  "taking  Presq'Me  [Erie,  Pennsyl- 
vania] which  is  within  our  own  SUte,  as  the  great 
mart  or  place  of  embarkation." 

The  pUn  which  the  Society  proposed  involved  the 
improvement  of  water  and  land  routes  by  way  of  the 
DeUware  to  Lake  Ontario  and  Lake  Otsego,  and  of 
eight  routes  by  the  Susquehanna  drainage,  north, 
northwest,  and  west.  A  bill  which  passed  the  Legis- 
lature on  April  13.  1781,  appropriated  money  for 
these  improvementa.    Work  was  begun  immedi- 
ately on  the  Schuylkill-Susquehanna  Canal,  but 
only  four  miles  had  been  completed  by  1794,  when 
the  Lancaster  Turnpike  directed  men's  attenUon 
to  improved  highways  as  an  alternative  more  likely 
than  canak  to  provide  the  desired  facilities  for  in- 
land transportation.    The  work  on  the  canal  was 
renewed,  however,  in  1821,  when  the  rival  Erie 
Canal  was  nearing  completion,  and  was  finished  in 
1827.    It  became  known  as  the  Union  Canal  and 
formed  a  link  in  the  Pennsylvania  canal  system, 
the  development  of  which  wiU  be  described  in  a 
later  chapter. 
In  New  York  State,  throughout  the  period  of  the 


S6  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COtOIEBCB 
Old  French  and  the  Revolutionary  wars,  bargea 
and  keel  boats  had  plied  the  Mohawk, Wood  Creek, 
and  the  Oswego  to  Lake  Ontario.  Around  such 
obstructions  as  Cohoes  Falls,  Little  Falls,  and  the 
portage  at  Rome  to  Wood  Creek,  wagons,  sleds, 
and  pack-horses  had  transferred  the  cargoes.  To 
avoid  this  labor  and  delay  men  soon  conceived  ol 
conquering  these  obstacles  by  locks  and  canals.  As 
early  as  1777  the  brilliant  Gouvemeur  Morris  had 
a  vision  of  the  economic  development  of  his  State 
when  "the  waters  of  the  great  western  inland  seat 
would,  by  the  aid  of  man,  break  through  their 
barriers  and  mingle  with  those  of  the  Hudson." 

Elkanah  Watson  was  in  many  ways  the  Wash- 
ington of  New  York.  He  had  the  foresight,  pa- 
tience, and  persistence  of  the  Virginia  planter.  His 
Journal  of  a  tour  up  the  Mohawk  in  1788  and  a 
pamphlet  which  he  published  in  1791  may  be  said 
to  be  the  ultimate  sources  in  any  history  of  the 
internal  commerce  of  New  York.  As  a  result,  a 
company  known  as  "The  President,  Directors,  and 
Company  of  the  Western  Inland  Lock  Navigation 
in  the  Stete  of  New  York, "  with  a  capital  stock  of 
$25,000,  was  authorized  by  act  of  legislature  in 
March,  1792,  and  the  SUte  subscribed  for  $12,500 
in  stock.    Many  singular  provisions  were  inserted 


I 


THE  MASTERY  OP  THE  HIVEBS  ST 
in  this  charter,  but  none  mor^  remarkable  than  one 
which  stipulated  that  all  proGU  over  fifteen  per 
cent  should  revert  to  the  State  Treasury.  This 
hint  concerning  surplus  profits,  however,  did  not 
cause  a  stampede  when  the  books  were  opened  for 
subscriptions  in  New  York  and  Albany.  In  later 
years,  when  the  Erie  Canal  gave  promise  of  a  new 
era  in  American  inland  commerce,  EJkaoah  Wat- 
son recalled  with  a  grim  satisfaction  the  efforts  of 
these  early  days.  The  subscription  books  at  the 
old  Coffee  House  in  New  York,  he  tells  us,  lay  open 
three  days  without  an  entry,  and  at  Lewis's  tavern 
in  Albany,  where  the  books  were  opened  for  a  simi- 
lar period,  "no  mortal"  had  subscribed  for  more 
than  two  shares. 

The  system  proposed  for  the  improvement  of  the 
waterways  of  New  York  was  similar  to  that  pro- 
jected for  the  Potomac.  A  canal  was  to  be  cut 
from  the  Mohawk  to  the  Hudson  in  order  to  avoid 
Cohoes  Falls;  a  canal  with  locks  would  overcome 
the  forty-foot  drop  at  Little  Falls;  another  canal 
over  five  thousand  feet  in  length  was  to  connect 
the  Mohawk  and  Wood  Creek  at  Rome;  minor  im- 
provements were  to  be  made  between  Schenectady 
and  the  mouth  of  the  Schoharie;  and  finally  the 
Oswego  Falls  at  Rochester  were  to  be  circumvented 


S8  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
also  by  canal.  All  the  objections,  di£Sculties,  and 
discouragements  which  had  attended  efforts  to  im- 
prove waterways  elsewhere  in  America  confronted 
these  New  York  promoters.  They  began  in  179S 
at  Little  Fal's  but  were  soon  forced  to  cease  owing 
to  the  failure  of  funds.  Under  the  encouraging 
spur  of  a  state  subscription  to  two  hundred  shares 
of  stock,  they  renewed  their  efforts  in  1704  but 
were  again  forced  to  abandon  the  work  before 
the  year  had  passed.  By  November,  1795,  how- 
ever, they  had  completed  the  canal  and  in  thirty 
days  had  received  toll  to  the  amount  of  about  four 
hundred  dollars. 

The  total  actual  work  done  is  not  clearly  shown 
by  the  documents,  but  it  is  evident  that  the  measure 
of  success  achieved  was  not  equaled  elsewhere  on 
similar  improvements  on  a  large  scale.  From  1796 
to  1804  the  tolls  received  at  Rome  amounted  to 
over  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  and  at  Little  Falls 
to  over  fifty-eight  thousand  dollars  —  a  sum  which 
exceeded  the  original  cost  of  construction.  Divi- 
dends had  crept  up  from  three  per  cent  in  1798  to 
five  and  a  half  per  cent  in  1817,  the  year  in  which 
work  was  begun  on  the  Erie  Canal. 

No  struggle  for  the  mastery  of  an  American 
river  matches  in  certain  respects  the  effort  of  the 


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THE  BIASTEBY  OF  THE  SIVEBS  S9 
'Lehigh  Coal  and  Navigation  Company  to  bridle 
jthe  Lehigh  and  make  it  play  its  part  in  the  com- 
jmercial  development  of  Pennsylvania.  The  fail- 
jures  and  trials  of  the  promoters  of  this  company 
'  ^rere  no  less  remarkable  than  was  the  great  success 
jthat  eventually  crowned  the  effort.  In  1793  the 
'Lehigh  Coal  Mine  Company  was  organized  and 
purchased  some  ten  thousand  acres  in  the  Mauch 
Chunk  anthracite  region,  nine  miles  from  the  Le- 
high Biver.  It  then  appropriated  a  sum  of  money 
to  build  a  road  from  the  mines  to  the  river  in  the 
expectation  that  the  State  would  improve  the  navi- 
gation of  the  waterway,  for  which,  it  has  already 
been  noted,  an  appropriation  had  been  made  in 
1791,  in  accordance  with  the  programme  of  the 
Society  for  Promoting  the  Improvement  of  Roads 
and  Inland  Navigation.  Nothing  was  done,  how- 
ever, to  improve  the  river,  and  the  company,  after 
various  attempts  at  shipping  coal  to  Philadelphia, 
gave  up  the  effort  and  allowed  the  property,  which 
was  worth  millions,  to  lie  idle.  In  1807  the  Lehigh 
Coal  Mine  Company,  in  another  effort  to  get  its 
wares  before  the  public,  granted  to  Rowland  and 
Rutland,  a  private  firm,  free  right  to  operate  one  of 
its  veins  of  coal;  but  this  operation  also  resulted  in 
failure.    In  1813  thecompany  made  a  third  attempt 


40  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
and  granted  to  a  private  concern  a  lease  of  the 
entire  property  on  the  condition  that  ten  thou- 
sand bushels  of  coal  should  be  taken  to  market 
annually.  Difficulties  immediately  made  them- 
selves apparent.  No  contractor  could  be  found 
who  vould  haul  the  output  to  the  Lehigh  River 
for  less  than  four  dollars  a  ton,  and  the  man  who 
accepted  those  terms  lost  money.  Of  five  barges 
filled  at  Mauch  Chunk  three  went  to  pieces  on  the 
way  to  Philadelphia.  Although  the  contents  of  the 
other  two  sold  for  twenty  dollars  a  ton,  the  pro- 
ceeds failed  to  meet  expenses,  and  the  operating 
company  threw  up  the  lease. 

But  it  happened  that  White  and  Hazard,  the 
wire  manufacturers  who  purchased  this  Lehigh 
coal,  were  greatly  pleased  with  its  quality.  Be- 
lieving that  coal  could  be  obtained  more  cheaply 
from  Mauch  Chunk  than  from  the  mines  along  the 
Schuylkill,  White,  Hauto,  and  Hazard  formed  a 
company,  entered  into  negotiation  with  the  owners 
of  the  Lehigh  mines,  and  obtained  the  lease  of  their 
properties  for  a  period  of  twenty  years  at  an  annual 
rental  of  one  ear  of  com.  The  company  agreed, 
moreover,  to  ship  every  year  at  least  forty  thou- 
sand bushels  of  coal  to  Philadelphia  for  its  own 
consumption,  to  prove  the  value  of  the  property. 


THE  MASTERY  OF  THE  RIVEBS 


41 


White  and  hia  partners  immediately  applied  to 
the  Legislature  {or  permission  to  improve  the  navi- 
gation of  the  Lehigh,  stating  the  purpose  of  the  im- 
provement and  citing  the  faot  that  their  efforts 
would  tend  to  serve  as  a  model  for  the  improve- 
ment of  other  Pennsylvania  streams.  The  desired 
opportunity  "to  ruin  themselves,"  as  one  member 
of  the  Legislature  put  it,  was  granted  by  an  act 
passed  March  20,  1818.  The  various  powers  ap- 
plied for,  and  granted,  embraced  the  whole  range  of 
tried  and  untried  methods  for  securing  "a  naviga- 
tion downward  once  in  three  days  for  boats  loaded 
with  one  hundred  barrels,  ^r  ten  tons."  The  State 
kept  its  weather  eye  open  in  this  matter,  however, 
for  a  small  minority  felt  that  these  men  would  not 
ruin  themselves.  Accordingly,  the  act  of  grant 
reserved  to  the  commonwealth  the  right  to  compel 
the  adoption  of  a  complete  system  of  slack-water 
navigation  from  Easton  to  Stoddartsville  if  the 
service  given  by  the  company  did  not  meet  "the 
wants  of  the  country." 

Capital  was  subscribed  by  a  patriotic  public  on 
condition  that  a  committee  of  stockholders  should 
go  over  the  ground  and  pass  judgment  on  the  prob- 
able success  of  the  effort.  The  report  was  favor- 
able, so  far  as  the  improvement  of  the  river  was 


42  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
concerned ;  but  the  nine-mile  road  to  the  mines  <waa 
unanimously  voted  impracticable.  "To  give  you 
an  idea  of  the  country  over  which  the  road  is  to 
pass,"  wrote  one  of  the  commissioners,  "I  need 
only  tell  you  that  I  considered  it  quite  an  easement 
when  the  wheel  of  my  carriage  struck  a  stump  in- 
stead of  a  stone."  The  public  mind  was  divided. 
Some  held  that  the  attempt  to  operate  the  coal 
mine  was  farcical,  but  that  the  improvement  of 
the  Lehigh  River  was  an  undertaking  of  great  value 
and  of  probable  profit  to  investors.  Others  were 
just  as  positive  that  the  river  improvement  would 
follow  the  fate  of  so  many  similar  enterprises  but 
that  a  fortune  was  in  store  for  those  who  invested 
in  the  Lehigh  mines. 

The  direct  result  of  the  examiners'  report  and  of 
the  public  debate  it  provoked  was  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  first  interlocking  companies  in  the  com- 
mercial history  of  America.  The  Lehigh  Naviga- 
tion Company  was  formed  with  a  capital  stock  of 
$150,000  and  the  Lehigh  Coal  Company  with  a 
capital  stock  of  $55,000.  This  incident  forms  one 
of  the  most  striking  illustrations  in  American  his- 
tory of  the  dependence  of  a  commercial  venture 
upon  methods  of  inland  transportation.  The  Le- 
high Navigation  Company  proceeded  to  build  its 


THE  MASTERY  OP  THE  RIVEBS  4S 
dams  and  walls  while  the  Lehigh  Coal  Company 
constructed  the  first  roadway  in  America  built  on 
the  principle  —  later  adopted  by  the  railways  —  of 
dividing  the  total  distance  by  the  total  descent  in 
order  to  determine  the  grade.  Not  to  be  outdone 
in  point  of  ingenuity,  the  Lehigh  Navigation  Com- 
pany, then  suffering  from  an  unprecedented  dearth 
of  water,  adopted  White's  invention  of  sluice  gates 
connecting  with  pools  which  could  be  filled  with 
reserve  water  to  be  drawn  upon  as  navigation  re- 
quired. By  1819  the  necessary  depth  of  water 
between  Mauch  Chimk  and  Easton  was  obtained. 
The  two  companies  were  immediately  amalga- 
mated under  the  title  of  the  Lehigh  Coal  and  Navi- 
gation Company  and  by  1823  had  sent  over  two 
thousand  tons  of  coal  to  market. 

As  most  of  the  efforts  to  improve  the  rivers, 
however,  met  with  indifferent  success  and  many 
failures  were  recorded,  the  pendulum  of  public  con- 
fidence in  this  aid  to  inland  commerce  swung  away, 
and  highway  improvement  by  means  of  stone  roads 
and  toll  road  companies  came  into  favor  in  the 
interval  between  the  nation's  two  eras  of  river 
improvement  and  canal  building. 


a 


*--.■    «->■       k-' 


CHAPTER  IV 


A  NATION   ON   WBEEUB 


/ 


In  early  days  the  Indian  had  not  only  followed  the 
watercourses  in  his  canoe  but  had  made  his  way 
on  foot  over  trails  through  the  woods  and  over 
the  mountains.  In  colonial  days,  Englishman  and 
Frenchman  followed  the  footsteps  of  the  Indian, 
and  as  settlement  increased  and  trade  developed, 
the  forest  path  widened  into  the  highway  for 
wheeled  vehicles.  Massachusetts  began  the  work 
of  road  making  in  1639  by  passmg  an  act  which 
decreed  that  "the  ways"  should  be  six  to  ten  rods 
wide  "  in  common  grounds,"  thus  allowing  sufficient 
room  for  more  than  one  track.  Similar  broad 
"ways"  were  authorized  in  New  York  and  Penn- 
sylvania in  1664;  stumps  and  shrubs  were  to  be  cut 
close  to  the  ground,  and  "sufficient  bridges"  were 
to  be  built  over  streams  and  marshy  places.  Vir- 
ginia passed  legislation  for  highways  at  an  early 
date,  but  it  was  not  until  1662  that  strict  laws  were 


A  NATION  ON  WHEELS  45 

enacted  with  a  view  to  keeping  the  roads  in  a  per- 
manenUy  good  condition.    Under  these  laws  sur- 
veyors were  appointed  to  establish  in  each  county 
roads  forty  feet  wide  to  the  church  and  to  the 
courthouse.    In  1700,  Pennsylvania  turned  her  lo- 
cal roads  over  to  the  county  justices,  put  the  King's 
highway  and  the  main  public  roads  under  the 
care  of  the  governor  and  his  council,  and  ordered 
each  county  to  erect  bridges  over  its  streams. 
The  word  "roadmaking"  was  capable  of  several 
interpretations.     In  general,  it  meant  outlining 
the  course  for  the  new  thoroughfare,  clearing  away 
fallen  timber,  blazing  or  notching  the  trees  so  that 
the  traveler  might  not  miss  the  track,  and  build- 
ing bridges  or  laying  logs  "over  all  the  marshy, 
swampy,  and  difficult  dirty  places." 

The  streams  proved  serious  obstacles  to  early 
traffic.  It  has  been  shown  already  that  the  earliest 
routes  of  animal  or  man  sought  the  watersheds;  the 
trails  therefore  usually  encountered  one  stream 
near  its  junction  with  another.  At  first,  of  course, 
fording  was  the  common  method  of  crossing  water, 
and  the  most  advantageous  fordingplaces  were  gen- 
erally found  near  the  mouths  of  tj-ibutary  streams, 
where  bars  and  islands  are  frequently  formed  and 
where  the  water  is  consequently  shallow.    When 


4»    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COBOIERCE 
ferries  began  to  be  used,  they  were  usuaUy  sita- 
ated  just  above  or  below  the  fords;  but  when  the 
bridge  succeeded  the  ferry,  the  primitive  bridge 
builder  went  bade  to  the  old  fording  place  in 
order  to  take  advantage  of  the  shaUower  water, 
bars,  and  islands.    With  the  advent  of  improved 
engineering,  the  character  of  river  banks  and  cur- 
rents  was  more  frequenUy  taken  into  consider*, 
tion  in  choosing  a  site  for  a  bridge  than  was  the 
case  in  the  olden  times,  but  despite  this  fact  the 
bridges  of  today,  generally  speaking,  span  the 
rivers  where  the  deer  or  the  buffalo  splashed  his 
way  across  centuries  ago. 

On  the  broader  streams,  where  fording  was  im- 
possible and  traffic  was  perforce  carried  by  ferry, 
the  canoe  and  the  keel  boat  of  the  earliest  day^ 
gave  way  in  time  to  the  ordinary  "flat"  or  barge. 
At  first  the  obligation  of  the  ferryman  to  the  pub^ 
lie,  though  recognized  by  English  law.  was  ^ored 
in  America  by  legislators  and  monopolists  alike. 
Men  obtained  the  land  on  both  sides  of  the  rivers 
at  the  crossing  places  and  served  the  public  only 
at  their  own  convenience  and  at  their  own  charges. 
In  many  cases,  to  encourage  the  opening  of  roads 
or  of  ferries.  naUonal  and  state  authorities  made 
grants  of  land  on  the  same  principle  foUowed  in 


A  NATION  ON  WHEEI5  VI 

later  days  in  the  case  of  'Western  railroads.  Such, 
for  instance,  was  the  grant  to  Ebenezer  Zane,  at 
Zanesville,  Lancaster,  and  Chillicothe  in  the 
Northwest  Territory.  These  monopolies  some- 
times were  extremely  profitable:  a  descendant  of 
the  owcers  of  the  famous  Ingles  ferry  across  New 
Biver,  on  the  Wilderness  Road  to  Kentucky,  is 
responsible  for  the  statement  that  in  the  heyday  of 
travel  to  the  Southwest  the  privilege  was  worth 
from  $10,000  to  $15,000  annually  to  the  family. 
But  as  local  governments  became  more  efficient, 
monopolies  were  abolished  and  the  collection  of 
tolls  was  taken  over  by  the  authorities.  The 
awakening  of  inland  trade  is  most  clearly  indi- 
cated everywhere  by  the  action  of  assemblies  re- 
garding the  operation  of  ferries,  and  in  general,  by 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  tolls  and 
ferries  were  being  regulated  by  law. 

But  neither  roads  nor  ferries  were  of  themselves 
sufficient  to  put  a  nation  on  wheels.  The  early 
polite  society  of  the  settled  neighborhoods  traveled 
in  horse  litters,  in  sedan  chairs,  or  on  horseback, 
the  women  seated  on  pillions  or  cushions  behind 
the  saddle  riders,  while  oxcarts  and  horse  barrows 
brought  to  town  the  produce  of  the  outlying  farms. 
Although  carts  and  rude  wagons  could  be  built 


)^  li 


M    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

entirely  o!  wood,  there  could  be  no  marked  advance 
m  transportation  until  the  development  of  mining 
m  certain  localities  reduced  the  price  of  iron    With 
the  increase  of  travel  and  trade,  the  old  world 
coach  and  chaise  and  wain  came  into  use.  and  iron 
for  tire  and  brace  became  an  imjicrative  necessity 
Tie  connection  between  the  production  of  iron  and 
the  care  of  highways  was  recognized  by  legislation 
as  early  as  1732.  when  Maryland  excused  men  and 
slaves  m  the  ironworks  from  labor  on  the  public 
roads,  though  by  the  middle  of  the  century  owners 
of  ironworks  were  obliged  to  detail  one  man  out  of 
every  ten  in  their  employ  for  such  work. 

While  the  coastwise  trade  between  the  colonies 
was  stm  preeminently  important  as  a  means  of 
transporting  commodities,  by  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  land  routes  from  New  York 
to  New  England,  from  New  York  across  New 
Jersey  to  PhUadelphia.  and  those  radiating  from 
Philadelphia  in  every  direction,  were  coming  into 
general  use.    The  date  of  the  opening  of  regular 
freight  traffic  between  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
IS  set  by  the  reply  of  the  Governor  of  New  Jersey 
m  1707  to  a  protest  against  monopolies  granted 
on  one  of  the  old  widened  Indian  trails  between 
BurLngton  and  Amboy.     "At  present."  he  says. 


\ 


I 


\ 


A  NATION  ON  WHEELS  49 

"everybody  is  sure,  once  a  fortnight,  to  have  an 
opportunity  of  sending  any  quantity  of  goods, 
great  or  small,  at  reasonable  rates,  without  bein^ 
m  danger  of  imposition;  and  the  sending  of  this 
wagon  is  so  far  from  being  a  grievance  or  mo- 
nopoly.  that  by  thU  mean*  and  no  other,  a  trade  has 
been  carried  on  between  Philadelphia.  Burling- 
ton. Amboy,  and  New  York,  which  was  never 
known  before." 

The  long  Philadelphia  Road  from  the  Lancaster 
region  into  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  by  way  of  Wad- 
kins  on  the  Potomac,  was  used  by  German  and 
Irish  traders  probably  as  early  as  1700.    In  1728 
the  people  of  Maryland  were  petitioning  for  a  road 
from  the  ford  of  the  Monocacy  to  the  home  of 
Nathan  Wickham.    Four  years  later  Jost  Heydt 
leading  an  immigrant  party  southward,  broke  open 
a  road  from  the  York  Barrens  toward  the  Potomac 
two  miles  above  Harper's  Ferry.    This  avenue  — 
by  way  of  the  Berkeley,  SUmiton.  Watauga,  and 
Oreenbner  regions  to  Tennessee  and  Kentucky 
-  was  the  longest  and  most  important  in  America 
dunng  the  Revolutionary  period.    The  Virginia 
Assembly  in  1779  appointed  commissioners  to  view 
this  route  and  to  report  on  the  advisability  of 
making  it  a  wagon  road  aU  the  way  to  Kentucky 


so    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMBIEBCE 
In  17M,  efforts  were  made  in  Kentucky  to  turn 
the  WildemeM  Trail  into  a  wagon  road,  and  in 
this  same  year  the  Kentucky  Legislature  passed 
an  act  making  the  route  from  Crab  Oivhanl  to 
Cumberland  Gap  a  wagon  road  thirty  feet  in  width. 
From  Pennsylvania  and  from  Virginia  commerce 
westward  bound  followed  in  the  main  the  army 
roads  hewn  out  by  Braddock  and  Forbes  in  their 
campaigns  against  Fort  Duquesne.   In  17iSfi,  Brad- 
dock,  marching  from  Alexandria  by  way  of  Fort 
Cumberland,  had  opened  a  passage  for  his  artil- 
lery and  wagons  to  £aurel  Hill,  near  Uniontown, 
Pennsylvania.    His  force  included  a  corps  of  sea- 
men equipped  with  block  and  tackle  to  raise  and 
lower  his  wagons  in  the  steep  inclines  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies.    Three  years  later,  Forbes,  in  his  careful, 
dogged  campaign,  followed  a  more  northerly  route. 
Advancing  from  Philadelphia  and   Carlisle,  he 
esUblished  Fort  Bedford  and  Fort  Ligonier  as 
bases  of  supply  and  broke  a  new  road  through 
the  interminable  forest  which  clothed  the  rugged 
mountain  ranges.    From  the  first  there  was  bitter 
rivalry  between  these  two  routes,  and  the  young 
Colonel  Washington  was  roundly  criticized  by  both 
Forbes  and  Bouquet,  his  second  in  command,  for 
his  partisan  effort  to  "drive  me  down,"  as  Fc-bes 


A  NATION  ON  VVHEEIS  ji 

phraaed  it,  into  tbe  Vii'giiiia  or  Braddock's  Hoad. 
This  rivalry  br'ween  the  two  routes  continued 
when  the  destruction  of  the  French  power  over  the 
poads  in  the  interior  threw  open  to  Pennsylvania 
and  her  southern  neighbors  alike  the  lucrative 
trade  of  the  Ohio  country. 

From  the  journals  of  the  Ume  may  be  caught 'vT,t 
glimpses  of  Jie  toils  and  dangers  of  travel  tlirot  I. 
these  wild  hill  regions.    Let  the  traveler  of  ♦oday 
as  he  foUows  the  track  that  once  was  BraddoekV 
Koad.  picture  the  scene  of  that  earlier  time  when,  .a 
the  face  of  every  natural  obstacle,  the  army  toilci 
across  the  mountain  chains.    Where  the  earth  in 
yonder  ravine  is  whipped  to  a  black  froth,  the 
engineers  have  thrown  down  the  timber  cut  in 
widening  the  trail  and  have  constructed  a  corduroy 
bridge,  or  rather  a  loose  raft  on  a  sea  of  muck.   The 
wreck  of  the  last  wagon  which  tried  to  pass  gives 
«ome  additional  safety  to  the  next.    Afready  the 
stench  from  the  horse  killed  in  the  accident  deadens 
the  heavy,  heated  air  of  the  forest.    The  sailors, 
"tripped  to  the  waist,  are  ready  with  ropes  and 
tackle  to  let  the  next  wagon  down  the  incline;  the 
pulleys  creak,  the  ropes  groan.    The  horses,  weak 
and  terror-stricken,  plunge  and  rear;  in  the  final 
cnwh  to  the  level  the  leg  of  the  wheel  horse  is 


\ 


Bt  THE  PATHS  OP  INLA^fD  COMMERCE 
caught  and  broken;  one  of  the  soldiers  shoots  the 
animal;  the  traces  are  unbuckled;  another  beast 
is  substituted.  Beyond,  the  seamen  are  waiting 
with  tackle  attached  to  trees  on  the  ridge  above  to 
assist  the  horses  on  the  cruel  upgrade  —  and  Brad- 
dock,  the  deceived,  maligned,  misrepresented,  and 
misjudged,  creeps  onward  in  his  brave  conquest 
of  the  Alleghanies  in  a  campaign  that,  in  spite 
of  its  military  failure,  deserves  honorable  mention 
among  the  achievements  of  British  arms. 

Everywhere,  north  and  south,  the  early  American 
road  was  a  veritable  Slough  of  Despond.  Watery 
pits  were  to  be  encountered  wherein  horses  were 
drowned  and  loads  sank  from  sight.  Frequently 
traffic  was  stopped  for  hours  by  wagons  which 
had  broken  down  and  blocked  the  way.  Thirteen 
wagons  at  one  time  were  stalled  on  Logan's  Hill  on 
the  York  Road.  Frightful  accidents  occurred  in 
attempting  to  draw  out  loads.  Jonathan  Tyson, 
for  instance,  in  1792,  near  Philadelphia  saw  a 
horse's  lower  jaw  torn  off  by  the  slipping  of  a  chain. 
Save  in  the  winter,  when  in  the  northern  colonies 
snow  filled  the  ruts  and  frost  built  solid  bridges 
over  the  streams,  travel  on  these  early  roads  was 
never  safe,  rapid,  nor  comfortable.  The  compara- 
tive ease  of  winter  travel  for  the  carriage  of  heavy 


A  NATION  ON  WHEELS  59 

freight  and  for  purposes  of  trade  and  social  inter- 
course gave  the  colder  regions  an  advantage  over 
the  southern  that  was  an  important  factor  in  the 
development  of  the  country. 

No  genuine  improvement  of  roads  and  highways 
seems  to  have  been  attempted  until  the  era  her- 
alded by  Washington's  letter  to  Harrison  in  1784. 
But  the  problem  slowly  forced  itself  upon  all  sec- 
tions  of  the  country,  and  especially  upon  Penn- 
sylvania and  Maryland,  whose  inhabitants  began 
to  fear  lest  New  York,  Alexandria,  or  Richmond 
should  snatch  the  Western  trade  from  Philadelphia 
or  Baltimore.    The  truth  that  ut  derlies  the  prov- 
erb that  "history  repeats  itself"  is  well  illustrated 
by  the  fact  that  the  first  macadamized  road  in 
America  was  built  in  Pennsylvania,  for  here  also 
originated  the  pack-horse  trade  and  the  Conestoga 
horse  and  wagon;  here  the  first  inland  American 
canal  was  built,  the  first  roadbed  was  grade«J  on 
the  principle  of  dividing  the  whole  distance  by 
the  whole  descent,  and  the  first  railway  was  oper- 
atod.    Macadam  and  Telford  had  only  begun  to 
show  the  people  of  England  how  to  build  roads  of 
crushed  stone — an  art  first  developed  by  the  French 
engineer  Tr6saguet  —  when  Pennsylvanians  built 
the  Lancaster  Turnpike.    The  PhUadelphia  and 


M  THE  PATHS  OT  INLAND  COMMERCE 
Lancaster  Turnpike  Road  Company  was  chartered 
April  9, 179S,  as  a  part  of  the  general  plan  of  the 
Society  for  the  Improvement  of  Roads  and  Inland 
Navigation  already  described.  This  road,  sixty-two 
miles  in  length,  was  built  of  stone  at  a  cost  of 
$465,000  and  was  completed  in  two  years.  Never 
before  had  such  a  sum  been  invested  in  internal  im- 
provement in  the  United  States.  The  rapidity  with 
which  the  undertaking  was  carried  through  and  the 
profits  which  accrued  from  the  investment  were 
alike  astonishing.  The  subscription  books  were 
opened  at  eleven  o'clock  one  morning  and  by  mid- 
night 22S0  shares  had  been  subscribed,  each  pur- 
chaser paying  down  thirty  dollars.  At  the  same 
time  Elkanah  Waton  was  despondently  scanning 
the  subscription  books  of  his  Mcdiawk  Kiver  en- 
terprise at  Albany  where  "no  mortal"  had  risked 
more  than  two  shares. 

The  success  of  the  Laaeaster  Turnpike  was  not 
achieved  without  a  protest  against  the  monopoly 
which  the  new  venture  created.  It  is  true  that  in 
all  the  cok>nies  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  emi- 
nent domain  had  been  conceded  in  a  veiled  way 
to  officials  to  whose  care  the  laying  out  of  roads 
had  been  delegated.  As  early  as  1639  the  General 
G>urt  of  Massachusetts  had  ordered  each  town  to 


A  NATION  ON  yfEEEIS  u 

dwose  men  who,  cooperating  with  men  from  the 
adjoining  town,  should  "lay  out  highways  where 
they  may  be  most  convenient,  notwithstanding  any 
man's  property,  or  any  come  ground,  so  as  it  occa- 
sion not  the  pulling  down  of  any  man's  house,  or 
laying  open  any  garden  or  orchard."  But  the  open 
and  extended  exercise  of  these  rights  led  to  vigorous 
opposition  in  the  case  of  this  Pennsylvania  road. 
A  public  meeting  was  held  at  the  Prince  of  Wales 
Tavern  in  Philadelphia  in  1793  to  protest  in  round 
terms  against  the  monopolistic  character  of  the 
Lancaster  Turnpike.  Blackstone  and  Edward  HI 
were  hurled  at  the  heads  of  the  "venal "  legislators 
who  had  made  this  "monstrosity"  possible.  The 
opposition  died  down,  however,  in  the  face  of  the 

success  which  the  new  road  instanUy  achieved.  The 
Turnpike  was,  indeed,  admirably  situated.  Con- 
verging at  the  quaint  old  "borough  of  Lancaster," 
the  various  routes— northeast  from  Virginia,  east 
from  the  Carlisle  and  Chambersburg  region  and 
the  AUeghanies,  and  southeast  from  the  upper 
Susquehanna  country  —  poured  upon  the  Quaker 
City  a  trade  that  profited  every  merchant,  land- 
holder, and  laborer.  The  nine  toUgates,  on  the 
average  a  little  less  than  seven  miles  apart, 
turned  in  a  revenue  that  allowed  the  "President 


56    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMHERCE 

and  Managers  "  to  declare  dividends  to  stockboMers 
running,  it  is  said,  as  high  as  fifteen  per  cent. 

The  Lancaster  Turnpike  is  interesting  from  three 
points  of  view:  it  began  a  new  period  of  American 
transportation;  it  ushered  in  an  era  of  speculation 
unheard  of  in  the  previous  history  of  the  country; 
and  it  introduced  American  lawmakers  to  the  great 
problem  of  controlling  public  corporations. 

Along  this  thirty-seven-foot  road,  of  which 
twenty-four  feet  were  laid  with  stone,  the  new  <m 
of  American  inland  travel  progressed.  The  array 
of  two-wheeled  private  equipages  and  other  family 
carriages,  the  stagecoaches  of  bright  color,  and  the 
carts,  Dutch  wagons,  and  ConestQgas,  gave  token 
of  what  was  soon  to  be  witnessed  on  the  great  roads 
of  a  dozen  States  in  the  next  generation.  Here, 
probably,  the  first  distinction  b^an  to  be  drawn 
between  the  taverns  for  passengers  and  those  pat- 
ronized by  the  drivers  of  freight.  The  colonial 
taverns,  comparatively  few  and  far  between,  had 
up  to  this  time  served  the  traveling  public,  high 
and  low,  rich  and  poor,  alike.  But  in  this  new  era 
members  of  Congress  and  the  61ite  of  Philadelphia 
and  neighboring  towns  were  not  to  be  jostled  at 
the  table  by  burly  hostlers,  drivers,  wagoners,  and 
hucksters.    Two  types  of  inns  thus  came  quickly 


iDmrmssn.- 


A  NATION  CW  WHEELS  57 

into  existence:  the  tavern  entertained  the  stage- 
coach traffic,  while  the  democratic  roadhouse  served 
the  established  lines  of  Conestogas,  freighters,  and 
all  other  vehicles  which  poured  from  every  town, 
village,  and  hamlet  upon  the  great  thoroughfare 
leading  to  the  metropolis  on  the  Delaware. 

Among   American    inventions    the    Copestoga 
wagon  must  forever  be  remembered  with  respect. 
Originating  in  the  Lancaster  region  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  taking  its  name  either  from  the  horses  <rf 
the  Conestoga  VaUey  or  from  the  valley  itself,  this 
vehicle  was  unlike  the  old  English  wain  or  the 
Dutch  wagon  because  of  the  curve  of  its  bed.  This 
peculiarly  shaped  bottom,  higher  by  twelve  inches 
or  more  at  each  end  than  in  the  middle,  made  the 
vehicle  a  safer  conveyance  acroes  the  mountains  and 
over  all  rough  country  than  the  old  straight-bed 
wagon.     The  Conestoga  was  covered  with  can- 
vu,  aa  were  other  freight  vehicles,  but  the  lines  of 
the  bed  were  also  carried  out  in  the  framework 
above  and  gave  the  whole  the  effect  of  a  great  sWp 
swaying  up  and  down  the  billowy  hills.    The 
wheels  of  the  Conestoga  were  heavily  built  and 
wore  tires  four  and  six  inches  in  width.     The  har- 
ness of  the  six  horses  attached  to  the  wagon  was 
proportionately  heavy,  the  back  bands  being  fifteen 


58    THE  PATHS  Ot  INLAND  COMMEBCE 

inches  wide,  the  hip  straps  ten,  and  the  traces 
consisting  of  ponderous  iron  chains.  The  color  of 
the  original  Conestoga  wagons  never  varied:  the 
uaderbody  was  always  blue  and  the  upper  parts 
were  red.  The  wagoners  and  drivers  who  manned 
this  fleet  on  wheels  were  men  td  a  type  that  finds 
BO  parallel  except  in  the  boatmen  on  the  western 
rivers  who  were  almost  their  contemporaries.  Fit 
for  the  severest  toil,  weathered  to  the  color  of  the 
red  man,  at  home  under  any  roof  that  harbored 
a  demijohn  and  a  fiddle,  these  hardy  nomads  of 
early  commerce  were  the  custodians  of  the  largest 
amount  of  traffic  in  their  day. 

The  turnpike  era  overlaps  the  period  of  the 
building  of  national  roads  and  canals  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  railway  age,  but  it  is  of  greatest  interest 
during  the  first  twenty-five  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  up  to  the  time  when  the  completion  of  the 
Erie  Canal  set  new  standards.  During  this  period 
roads  were  also  constructed  westward  from  Balti- 
more and  Albany  to  connect,  as  the  Lancasta 
Turnpike  did  at  its  terminus,  with  the  thorough- 
fares from  the  trans-Alleghany  country.  The  me- 
tropolis of  Maryland  was  quickly  in  the  field  to 
challenge  the  bid  which  the  Quaker  City  made  for 
western  trade.    The  Baltimore-Reisterstown  and 


A  NATION  ON  VTHEELS  59 

Baltimore-Frederick  turnpikes  were  built  at  a  coat 
of  $10,000  and  $8000  a  mile  respectively;  and 
the  latter,  connecting  with  roads  to  Cumberland, 
linked  itsetf  with  the  great  national  road  to  Cttiio 
which  the  Government  built  between  1811  and 
1817.  These  famous  stoae  roads  of  Maryland  long 
kept  Baltimore  in  the  lead  as  the  principal  outlet 
for  the  western  trade.  New  York,  too,  proved  her 
right  to  the  title  of  Empire  State  by  a  marvel- 
ous activity  in  improving  her  magnificent  strategic 
position.  In  the  first  seven  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century  eighty-eight  incorporated  road  companies 
were  formed  with  a  total  capital  of  over  $8,000,000. 
Twenty  large  bridges  and  more  than  three  thou- 
sand miles  of  turnpike  were  constructed.  The 
movement,  indeed,  extended  from  New  England  to 
Virginia  and  the  Caruliaas,  and  turnpike  companies 
built  all  kinds  of  roads  —  earth,  corduroy,  plank, 
and  stone. 

In  many  cases  the  kind  of  road  to  be  constructed, 
the  tolls  to  be  charged,  and  the  amount  of  profit  to 
be  permitted,  were  laid  down  in  the  charters.  Thus 
new  problems  confronted  the  various  legislatures, 
and  interesting  principles  of  regulation  were  now 
established.  In  most  cases  companies  were  al- 
lowed, on  producing  their  books  of  receipts  and 


go    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMBIERCE 

expenditures,  to  increase  their  tolls  until  they  ob- 
tained a  profit  of  six  per  cent  on  the  investment, 
though  in  a  number  of  cases  nine  per  cent  was  per- 
mitted, yfhea  revenues  increased  beyond  the  six 
per  cent  mark,  however,  h  tendency  waa  to  re- 
duce tolls  or  to  uae  the  a.u  >  profit  to  purchase  the 
stock  for  the  State,  wK'  the  expectation  of  ulti- 
mately abolishing  toOgates  entirely.  The  theories 
of  state  regulation  <tf  corporations  and  the  obliga- 
tions of  public  carriers,  extending  even  to  the  com- 
pensation (A  workmen  in  case  of  accident,  were 
developed  to  a  considerable  degree  in  Ais  tarn- 
pike  era;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  principle 
of  permitting  fair  profit  to  corporatiotis  upon 
public  examination  of  their  accoimts  was  also 
recognized. 

The  stone  roads,  which  were  passable  at  all  sea- 
sons, brou^t  a  new  era  in  correspondence  and 
busineas.  Lines  of  stages  and  wagons,  as  well 
known  at  that  time  as  are  the  great  railways  of 
today,  plied  the  new  thoroughfares,  provided  some 
of  the  comforts  of  travd,  and  assured  the  safer  and 
more  rapid  delivery  of  goods.  This  period  is  some- 
times known  in  American  history  as  "The  Era  ol 
Good  Feeling"  and  the  turnpike  contributed  in 
no  small  degree  to  ms^e  the  phrase  applicable  not 


A  NATION  ON  WHEELS  61 

only  to  the  domain  of  politics  but  to  all  the  relations 
of  social  and  commercial  life. 

While  road  building  in  the  East  gives  a  dear  pic- 
ture of  the  rise  and  growth  of  commeix^  and  trade 
in  that  section,  it  is  to  the  rivers  of  the  trans- 
Alleghany  country  that  we  must  look  for  a  corre- 
sponding picture  in  this  >  irly  period.  The  canoe 
and  pirogue  could  handle  the  packs  and  kegs 
brought  westward  by  the  files  of  Indian  ponies; 
but  the  heavy  loads  of  the  Conestoga  wagons  de- 
manded stancher  craft.  The  flatboat  and  barge 
therefore  served  the  West  and  its  commerce  as  the 
Conestoga  and  turnpike  served  the  East. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  lUlTBOAT  AOB 

In  the  early  twenties  of  the  last  century  one  of  the 
popular  songs  of  the  day  was  The  Hunters  o/  Ken- 
tucky. Written  by  Samuel  Woodworth,  the  author 
of  The  Old  Oaken  Bucket,  it  had  originally  been 
printed  in  the  New  York  Mirror  but  had  come  into 
the  hands  of  an  actor  named  Ludlow,  who  waa 
playing  in  the  old  French  theater  in  New  Orleans. 
The  poem  chants  the  praises  of  the  Kentucky  rifle- 
men who  fought  with  Jackson  at  New  Orleans  and 
indubitably  proved 

That  every  man  was  half  a  horse 
And  half  an  alligator. 

Ludlow  knew  his  audience  and  he  saw  his  chance. 
Setting  the  words  to  ELsk':,  time,  Love  Laughs  at 
Locksmiths,  donning  the  costume  of  a  Western 
riverman,  and  arming  himself  with  a  long  "squirrel" 
rifle,  he  presented  hiiiiself  before  the  house.    The 


THE  FLATBOAT  AGE  es 

rivermen  who  fiUed  the  pit  received  him,  it  is  re- 
lated, with  "a  prolonged  whoop,  or  howl,  guch  as 
Indians  give  when  they  are  especially  pleased." 
And  to  these  sturdy  men  the  words  of  his  song 
made  a  strong  appeal: 

We  ate  a  hardy,  freebom  race. 

Each  man  to  fear  a  stranger; 
Whate'er  the  game,  we  join  in  chase, 

Despiong  toil  and  danger; 
And  if  a  daring  foe  annoys. 

No  matter  what  his  force  is. 
We'll  show  him  that  Kentucky  boys    . 

Are  Alligator-horses. 

The  title  "alligator-horse,"  of  which  Western 
rivermen  were  very  proud,  carried  with  it  a  stigges- 
tion  of  amphibious  strength  that  made  it  both  apt 
and  figuratively  accurate.  On  all  the  American 
rivers,  east  and  west,  a  lusty  crew,  collected  from 
the  waning  Indian  trade  and  the  disbanded  pioneer 
armies,  found  work  to  its  taste  in  poling  the  long 
keel  boats,  "cordelling"  the  bulky  barges  —  that 
is,  towing  them  by  pulling  on  a  line  attached  to 
the  shore  —  or  steering  the  "broadhoms"  or  flat- 
boats  that  transported  the  first  heavy  inland  river 
cargoes.  Like  longshoremen  of  all  ages,  the  Ameri- 
can riverman  was  as  rough  as  the  work  which 


MICtOCOTY    HESOIUTION    TEST   CHAK 

(ANSI  ond  ISO  TESr  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0    Ifi^ 


|2J 


12.2 


II  '  •  ■  ^     I. 

1125  i  u 


mE^iL^ 


A  APPLIED  IM^GE    tnc 

^S  I65J   tail   Main    Slr^t 

V,A  RocnesUr,    New   York         T*E09        USA 

^^=  (^'6)    *bi  -  0300  -  Pfione 

^S  <''B)   ;aB-5989-ra> 


64    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
calloused  his  hands  and  transformed  his  muscles 
into  bands  of  tempered  steel.    Like  all  men  given 
to  hard  but  intermittent  labor,  he  employed  his 
intervals  of  lebure  in  coarse  and  brutal  recreation. 
Their  roistering  exploits,  indeed,  have  made  these 
rivermen  almost  better  known  at  play  than  at 
work.     One  of  them,  the  notorious  Mike  Fink, 
known  as  "the  Snag"  on  tie  Mississippi  and  as 
the  "Snapping  Turtle"  on  the  Ohio,  haa  left  the 
record,  not  that  he  could  load  a  keel  boat  in  a  cer- 
tain length  of  time,  or  lift  a  barrel  of  whiskey  with 
one  arm,  or  that  no  tumultuous  current  had  ever 
compelled  him  to  back  water,  but  that  he  could 
"out-run,  out-hop,  out-jump,  throw  down,  drag 
out,  and  lick  any  man  in  the  country,"  and  that 
he  was  "a  Salt  River  roarer." 

Such  men  and  the  craft  they  handled  were 
known  on  the  Atlantic  rivers,  but  it  was  on  the 
Mississippi  and  its  branches,  especially  the  Ohio, 
that  they  played  their  most  important  part  in  the 
history  of  American  inland  commerce.  Before  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  wagons  and 
Conestogas  were  bringing  great  loads  of  merchan- 
dise to  such  points  on  the  headwaters  as  Browns- 
ville, Pittsburgh,  and  Wheeling.  As  early  as  1782, 
we  are  told.  Jacob  Yoder.  a  Pennsylvania  German. 


A  FLATBOAT, 

musisstp, 

ANARKi 

''ii|ro»»  iani  FAm 
In  tho  New  York 


OKTnimOASD 
MnOADtlOM^ 


64    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMlIRCr 

c.'Jou«.d  his  han-ls  an.i  tran.sr„rmod  hi.s  muscles 
mlo  bands  of  teu.pmri  M^I.  Like  all  m<>„  ^W^„ 
to  bar,!  but  inl..rmitt,r,t  1^!,,^.  he  .,r.;,Iovcd  his 
mtcrvals  of  U-isun-  ;„  -„arse  „nd  b,  ulul  .ecr-ation. 
Ahejr  roistering  ext,!,«ts,  indet-d,  have  Tna.ie  thos<i 
nvennrn  almost  i;rtt.-,  known  at  pia,y  than  M 
work  ()n,.  of  !h<.„,.  the  notorious  Afike  Fink 
laown  .,,      Ui,.  ;.naK"  on  the  Mississippi  and  al 

r-v«ru.  ''  .tcttatttrt  tawwimrta.  JMiaiwi  wsu-^i-j-.,,, 

out-nm,  out-hop,  out-jump,  ihruM  .low.,,  dra^ 
out,  and  lick  any  man  in  the  ,-ountrv  "  and  tliat 
he  WRS  "a  Salt  River  roarer." 

Surli  na-n  and  the  eraft  they  handl<-d  were 
known  on  the  Atlantic  rivers,  but  it  was  on  the 
M.«<.„ppi  ,.,„i  its  branehes.  esix^-iailv  the  Oh.o. 
that  .feey  p)av..,J  their  most  important  f,.,rt  in  the 
iu»i,jf  v,r  Aiiier»ean  inland  commerce  fJ.fore  the 
b;-«tnm-..«  of  the  nineteenth  centur,  ..^onS  and 
Owes-.v..-:  were  bnnKinR  great  lo^U  ,.f  nierehan- 
d«t-  tn  ..„  h  points  on  the  headwater,  as  Browna- 
vUIe.  P.tt.i  n-ah,  and  WWlin^,  a>  -arly  m  1783 
we  arc  told.  Jaeob  Yoder,  a  i'eiHisylvania  German.' 


L 


TBE  FIATBOAT  AGE  « 

■et  sail  from  the  Monongahela  country  with  the 
first  flatboat  to  descend  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi. 
As  the  years  passed,  the  number  of  such  craft  grew 
constantly  larger.  The  custom  of  fixing  the  wide- 
spreading  horns  of  cattle  on  the  prow  gave  these 
boats  the  alternative  name  of  "broadhoms,"  but 
no  accurate  classification  can  be  made  of  the  vari- 
ous kinds  of  craft  engaged  in  this  vast  traffic. 
Everything  that  would  float,  from  rough  rafts  to 
finished  barges,  was  commandeered  into  service, 
and  what  was  found  unsuitable  for  the  strenuous 
purposes  of  commercial  transporUtion  was  palmed 
off  whenever  possible  on  unsuspecting  emigrants 
en  route  to  the  lands  of  promise  beyond. 

Flour,  salt,  iron,  cider  and  peach  brandy  were 
staple  products  of  the  Ohio  country  which  the 
South  desired.  In  return  they  shipped  molasses, 
sugar,  coffee,  lead,  and  hides  upon  the  few  keel 
boats  which  crept  upstream  or  the  blundering 
barges  which  were  propelled  northward  by  means 
of  oar,  sail,  and  corddle.  It  was  not,  however, 
until  the  nineteenth  century  that  the  young  West 
was  producing  any  considerable  quantity  of  manu- 
factured goods.  Though  the  town  of  Pittsburgh 
had  been  laid  out  in  1764,  by  the  end  of  the  Bevolu- 
tion  it  was  still  little  more  than  a  collection  of  huts 


66    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
about  a  fort.    A  notable  amount  of  local  trade  was 
carried  on.  but  the  expense  of  transportation  was 
very  high  even  after  wagons  began  crossing  the 
ADeghanies.    For  example,  the  cost  from  Philadel- 
phia and  Baltimore  was  given  by  Arthur  Lee.  a 
member  of  Congress,  in  1784  as  forty-five  shilli^ 
a  hundredweight,  and  a  few  months  later  it  is 
quoted  at  sixpence  a  pound  when  Johann   D. 
Schoph  crossed  the  mountains  in  a  chaise  —  a  feat 
"which  till  now  had  been  considered  quite  im- 
possible."   Opinions  differed  widely  as  to  the  fu- 
ture of  the  little  town  of  five  hundred  inhabitants. 
The  important  product  of  the  region  at  first  was 
Monongahela  flour  which  long  held  a  high  place 
in  the  New  Orleans  market.    Coal  was  being  mined 
as  early  as  1796  and  was  worth  locally  threepence 
halfpenny  a  bushel,  though  within  seven  years  it 
was  being  sold  at  Philadelphia  at  thirty-sever,  and 
a  half  cents  a  bushel.     The  fur  trade  wit.    the 
Illinois  country  grew  less  important  as  the  century 
came  to  its  close,  but  Maynard  and  Morrison,  co- 
operating with  Guy  Bryan  at  Philadelphia,  sent  a 
barge  laden  with  merchandise  to  Dlinois  annually 
between  1790  and  1796,  which  returned  each  sea- 
son with  a  cargo  of  skins  and  furs.    Pittsburgh 
was  thus  a  distributing  center  of  some  iuportance; 


THE  FLATBOAT  AGE  «7 

but  the  fact  that  no  drayman  or  warehouse  was 
to  be  found  in  the  town  at  this  time  is  a  signifi- 
cant commentary  on  the  undeveloped  state  of  its 
commerce  and  manufacture. 

After  Wayne's  victory  at  the  battle  of  the  Fallen 
Timber  in  1794  and  the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of 
Greenville  in  1795,  which  ended  the  earlier  Indian 
wars  of  the  Old  Northwest  and  opened  for  settle- 
ment the  country  beyond  the  Ohio,  a  great  migra- 
tion followed  into  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Kentucky, 
and  the  commercial  activity  of  Pittsburgh  rapidly 
increased.    By  1800  a  score  of  profitable  industries 
had  arisen,  and  by  1803  the  first  bar-iron  foundry 
was,  to  quote  the  advertisement  of  its  owner, 
"sufficiently  upheld  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty" 
to  supply  in  part  the  demand  for  iron  and  castings. 
Glass  factories  were  established,  and  ropewalks, 
sail  lofts,  boatyards,  anchor  smithies,  and  brick- 
yards, were  soon  ready  to  supply  the  rapidly  in- 
creasing demands  of  the  infant  cities  and  the  coun- 
tryside on  the  lower  Ohio.    When  the  new  century 
arrived  the  Pittsburgh  district  had  a  population 
of  upwards  of  two  thousand. 

One  by  one  the  other  important  centers  of  trade 
in  the  great  valley  beyond  began  to  show  evi- 
dences of  life.    Marietta,  Ohio,  founded  in  1788  by 


68  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
Revolutionary  officers  from  New  England,  became 
the  metropolis  of  the  rich  Muskingum  River  dis- 
trict, which  was  presently  sending  many  flatboats 
southward.  Cincinnati  was  founded  in  the  same 
year  as  Marietta,  with  the  building  of  Fort  Wash- 
ington and  the  formal  organization  of  Hamilton 
County.  The  soil  of  the  Miami  country  was  as 
"mellow  as  an  ash  heap"  and  in  the  first  four 
months  of  1802  over  four  thousand  barrels  of  flour 
were  shipped  southward  to  challenge  the  prestige 
of  the  Monongahela  product.  Potters,  brickmak- 
ers,  gunsmiths,  cotton  and  wool  weavers,  coopers, 
turners,  wheelwrights,  dyers,  printers,  and  rope- 
makers  were  at  work  here  within  the  next  dec- 
ade. A  brewery  turned  out  five  thousand  bar- 
rels of  beer  and  porter  in  1811,  and  by  the  next 
year  the  pork-packing  business  was  thoroughly 
established. 

Louisville,  the  "Little  Falls"  of  the  West,  was 
the  entrepdt  of  the  Blue  Grass  region.  It  had  been 
a  place  of  some  importance  since  Revolutionary 
days,  for  in  seasons  of  low  water  the  rapids  in  the 
Ohio  at  this  point  gave  employment  to  scores  of 
laborers  who  assisted  the  flatboatmen  in  hauling 
their  cargoes  around  the  obstruction  which  pre- 
vented the  passage  of  the  heavily  loaded  barges. 


THE  PLATBOAT  AGE  <» 

The  town,  which  was  incorporated  in  1780,  soon 
showed  signs  of  comme., ' ,'  activity.    It  was  the 
proud  possessor  of  a  drygr   Js  house  in  1783.    The 
growth  of  its  tobacco  industry  was  rapid  from  the 
first.   The  warehouses  were  under  government  su- 
pervision and  inspection  as  early  as  1795,  and  in- 
numerable flatboats  were  already  bearing  cargoes 
of  bright  leaf  southward  in  the  last  decade  of 
the  century.    The  first  brick  house  in  Louisville 
was  erected  in  1789  with  materials  brought  from 
Pittsburgh.    Yankees  soon  established  the  "Hope 
Distillery";   and   the    manufacture   of   whiskey, 
which  had  long  been  a  staple  industry  conducted 
by  individuals,  became  an  incorporated  business 
of  great  promise  in   spite  of  objections  raised 
against  the  "creation  of  gigantic  reservoirs  of  this 
damning  drink." 

Thus,  about  the  year  1800,  the  great  industries 
of  the  young  West  were  all  established  in  the  re- 
gions dominated  by  the  growirg  cities  of  Pitts- 
burgh, Cincinnati,  and  Louisville.  But,  since  the 
combined  population  of  these  centers  could  not 
have  been  over  three  thousand  in  the  year  1800,  it 
is  evident  that  the  adjacent  rural  population  and 
the  people  living  in  every  neighboring  creek  and 
river  vaUey  were  chiefly  responsible  for  the  large 


70    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

trade  that  already  existed  between  this  comer  of 
the  Mississippi  basin  and  the  South. 

In  this  trade  the  riverman  was  the  fundamental 
factor.  Only  by  means  of  his  brawn  and  his  genius 
for  navigation  could  these  innumerable  tons  of 
flour,  tobacco,  and  bacon  have  been  kept  from 
totting  on  the  shores.  Yet  the  man  himself  re- 
mains a  legend  grotesque  and  mysterious,  one  of 
the  shadowy  figures  of  a  time  when  history  was 
being  made  too  rapidly  to  be  written.  If  we  ask 
how  he  loaded  his  flatboat  or  barge,  we  are  told 
that  "one  squint  of  his  eye  would  blister  a  bull's 
heel. "  When  we  inquire  how  he  found  the  channel 
amid  the  shifting  bars  and  floating  islands  of  that 
tortuous  two-thousand-mile  journey  to  New  Or- 
leans, we  are  informed  that  he  was  "the  very  in- 
fant that  turned  from  his  mother's  breast  and 
called  out  for  a  bottle  of  old  rye. "  When  we  ask 
how  he  overcame  the  natural  difficulties  of  trade  — 
lack  of  commission  houses,  varying  standards  of 
money,  want  of  systems  of  credit  and  low  prices 
due  to  the  glutting  of  the  market  when  hundreds 
of  flatboats  arrived  in  the  South  simultaneously 
on  the  same  freshet  —  we  are  informed  that  "BiUy 
Earthquake  is  the  geniwine,  double-acting  engine, 
and  can  out-run,  out-swim,  chaw  more  tobacco 


THE  PLATBOAT  AGE  71 

and  spit  less,  drink  more  whiskey  and  keep  soberer 
than  any  other  man  in  these  localities." 

The  reason  for  this  lack  of  information  is  that 
our  descriptions  of  flatboating  and  keel  boating 
are  written  by  travelers  who.  as  is  always  the  case, 
are  interested  in  what  is  unusual,  not  in  what  is 
typical  and  commonplace.     It  is  therefore  only 
dimly,  as  through  a  mist,  that  we  can  see  the  two 
lines  of  polemen  pass  from  the  prow  to  the  stem 
on  the  narrow  running-board  of  a  keel  boat,  lifting 
and  setting  their  poles  to  the  cry  , '  steersman  or 
captain.    The  struggle  in  a  swift  '     ffle"  or  rapid 
is  momentous.     If  the  craft  swerves,  all  is  lost. 
Shoulders  bend  with  savage  strength;  poles  quiver 
under  the  tension;  the  captain's  voice  is  rauco    , 
and  every  other  word  is  an  oath;  a  pole  breaks,  ai  i 
the  next  man,  though  half-dazed  in  the  mortal 
crisis,  does  for  a  few  moments  the  work  of  two.   At 
last  they  reach  the  head  of  the  rapid,  and  the  boat 
floats  out  on  the  placid  pool  above,  while  the 
"alligator-horse"  who  had  the  mishap  remarks  to 
the  scenery  at  large  that  he'd  be  "fly-blowed  be- 
fore sun-down  to  a  certingty  "  if  that  were  not  the 
very  pole  with  which  he  "pushed  the  broadhom 
up  Salt  River  where  the  snags  were  so  thick  that  a 
fish  couldn't  swim  without  rubbing  his  scales  off." 


7«    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

Audubon,  the  naturalist-inerchaiit  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, has  left  us  a  clear  picture  of  the  process  by 
which  these  heavy  tubs,  loaded  with  forty  or  fifty 
tons  of  freight,  were  forced  upstream  against  a 
swift  current: 


Wherever  a  point  projected  so  as  to  render  the  course 
or  bend  below  it  of  some  magnitude,  there  was  an 
eddy,  the  returning  current  of  which  was  sometimes 
as  strong  as  that  of  the  middle  of  the  great  stream. 
The  bargemen,  therefore,  rowed  up  pretty  close  under 
the  bank  and  had  merely  to  keep  watch  in  the  bow 
lest  the  boat  should  run  against  a  planter  or  sawyer. 
But  the  boat  has  reached  the  point,  and  there  the 
current  is  to  all  appearance  of  double  strength  and 
right  against  it.  The  men,  who  have  rested  a  few 
minutes,  are  ordered  to  take  their  stations  and  lay 
hold  of  their  oars,  for  the  river  must  be  crossed,  it  being 
seldom  possible  to  double  such  a  point  and  proceed 
along  the  same  shore.  The  boat  is  crossing,  its  head 
slanting  to  the  current,  which  is,  however,  too  strong 
for  the  rowers,  and  when  the  other  side  of  the  river 
has  been  reached,  it  has  drifted  perhaps  a  quarter  of  a 
mile.  The  men  are  by  this  time  exhausted  and,  as  we 
shall  suppose  it  to  bt  12  o'clock,  fasten  the  boat  to  a 
tree  on  the  shore.  A  small  glass  of  whiskey  is  given  to 
each,  when  they  cook  and  eat  their  dinner  and,  after 
resting  from  their  fatigue  for  an  hour,  recommence 
their  labors.  The  boat  is  again  seen  slowly  advancmg 
against  the  stream.  It  has  reached  the  lower  end  of  a 
sandbar,  along  the  edge  of  which  it  is  propelled  by 


THE  FLATBOAT  AGE  73 

means  of  long  poles,  if  the  bottom  be  hard.  Two 
men,  called  bowsmen,  remain  at  the  prow  to  assist,  in 
concert  with  the  steersman,  in  managing  the  boat  and 
keepmg  its  head  right  against  the  current.  The  rest 
place  themselv-s  on  the  land  side  of  the  footway  of  the 
vesse.,  put  one  end  of  their  poles  on  the  gromid  and 
the  other  against  their  shoulders  and  push  with  aU 
then-  might  As  each  of  the  men  reaches  the  stem,  he 
mosses  to  the  other  side,  runs  along  it  and  comes  again 
to  the  landward  side  of  the  bow.  when  he  recommences 
operations.  The  barge  in  the  meantime  is  ascending  at 
a  rate  not  exceeding  one  mUe  in  the  hour. 

Trustworthy  statistics  as  to  the  amount  and  char- 
acter of  the  Western  river  trade  have  never  been 
gathered.    They  are  to  be  found,  if  anywhere,  in 
the  reports  of  the  collectors  of  customs  located  at 
the  various  Western  ports  of  entry  and  departure 
Nothing  indicates  more  definitely  the  hour  when 
lie  West  awoke  to  its  first  era  of  big  business  than 
the  demand  for  the  creation  of  "districts"  and 
their  respecUve  ports,  for  by  no  other  means  could 
merchandise  and  produce  be  shipped  legally  to 
Spanish  territory  beyond  or  down  the  Itfississippi 
or  to  English  territory  on  the  northern  shores  of 
the  Great  Lakes. 

Louisville  is  as  old  a  port  of  the  United  States 
as  New  York  or  Philadelphia,  having  been  so 


74    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

created  when  our  government  waa  esUblished  in 
1789,  but  oddly  enough  the  first  returns  to  the 
National  Treasury  (1798)  are  credited  to  the  port 
of  Palmyra,  Tennessee,  far  inland  on  the  Cumber- 
land River.    In  1799  the  following  Western  town, 
were  made  ports  of  entry :  Erie,  Sandusky,  Detroit. 
Mackinaw   Island,   and   Columbia    (Cincinnati) 
The  first  port  on  the  Ohio  to  make  returns  was 
Fort  Massac,  Illinois,  and  it  is  from  the  collec- 
tor at  this  point  that  we  get  our  first  hint  as  to 
the  character  and  volume  of  Western  river  traffic. 
In  the  spring  months  of  March,  April,  and  May. 
1800,  cargoes  to  the  value  of  £28,581,  Pennsylvania 
currency,  went  down  the  Ohio.     This  included 
22,714  barrels  of  flour,  1017  barrels  of  whiskey, 
12,500  pounds  of  pork,  18,710  pounds  of  bacon. 
75,814  pounds  of  cordage,  S650  yards  of  country 
linen,  700  bottles,  and  700  barrels  of  potatoes. 
In  the  three  autumn  months  of  1800,  for  instance, 
twenty-one   boats  ascended   the   Ohio   by   Fort 
Massac,  with  cargoes  amounting  to  36  hundred- 
weight of  lead  and  a  few  hides.    Descending  the 
nver  at  the  same  time,  flatboats  and  barges  carried 
245  hundredweight  of  drygoods  valued  at  $32,550. 
When  we  compare  these  spring  and  fall  records' 
of  commerce  downstream  we  reach  the  natural 


THE  ELATBOAT  AGE  74 

conclusion  that  the  bulk  of  the  drygoods  which  went 
down  in  the  faU  of  the  year  had  been  brought  over 
the  mountains  during  the  summer.  The  fact  that 
the  Alleghany  pack-horses  and  Conestogas  were 
transporting  freight  to  supply  the  Spanish  towns 
on  the  Mississippi  River  in  the  first  year  of  the 
nineteenth  century  seems  proved  beyond  a  doubt 
by  these  reports  from  Fort  Massac. 

The  most  interesting  phase  of  this  era  is  the 
connecUon  between  western  trade  and  the  politics 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley  which  led  up  to  the  Louisi- 
ana Purchase.    By  the  Treaty  of  San  Lorenzo  in 
1795  Spain  made  New  Orleans  an  open  port,  and 
in  the  next  seven  years  the  young  West  made  the 
most  of  its  opportunity.    But  before  the  new  cen- 
tury was  two  years  old  the  difficulUes  encountered 
were  found  to  be  serious.    The  lack  of  commission 
merchants,  of  methods  of  credit,  of  information 
as  to  the  statd  of  the  market,  all  combined  to 
handicap  trade  and  to  cause  loss.     Pittsburgh 
shippers  figured  their  loss  already  at  $60,000  a 
year.    In  consequence  men  began  to  look  elsewhere, 
and  an  advocate  of  big  business  wrote  in  1802: 
"The  country  has  received  a  shock;  let  us  imme- 
diately extend  our  views  and  direct  our  efforts  to 
every  foreign  market." 


! 


J    i 


i 


76    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  plans  for  the  cap- 
ture of  foreign  trade  to  be  found  in  the  annals 
of  American  commerce  originated  almost  simul- 
taneously in  the  Muskingum  and  Monongahela 
regions.  With  a  view  to  making  the  American 
West  independent  of  the  Spanish  middlemen,  it 
was  proposed  to  build  ocean-going  vessels  on  the 
Ohio  that  should  carry  the  produce  of  the  interior 
down  the  Mississippi  and  thence  abroad  through 
the  open  port  of  New  Orleans.  The  idea  was 
typically  Western  in  its  arrogant  originality  and 
confident  self-assertion.  Two  vessels  were  built: 
the  brig  St.  Clair,  of  110  tons,  at  Marietta,  and  the 
Monongahela  Farmer,  of  250  tons,  at  Elizabeth  on 
the  Monongahela.  The  former  reached  Cincinnati 
April  27,  1801;  the  latter,  loaded  with  750  barrels 
of  flour,  passed  Pittsburgh  on  the  13th  of  May. 
Eventually,  the  St.  Clair  reached  Havana  and 
thus  proved  that  Muskingum  Valley  black  wal- 
nut, Ohio  hemp,  and  Marietta  carpenters,  anchor 
smiths,  and  skippers  could  defy  the  grip  of  the 
Spaniard  on  the  Mississippi.  Other  vessels  fol- 
lowed these  adventurers,  and  shipbuilding  imme- 
diately became  an  important  industry  at  Pitts- 
burgh, Marietta,  Cincinnati,  and  other  points.  The 
Duane  of  Pittsburgh  was  said  by  the  Liverpool 


THE  PLATBOAT  AGE  T7 

Saturday  AdvertUer  of  July  9,  1803,  to  have  been 
the  "first  vessel  which  ever  came  to  Europe  from 
the  western  waters  of  the  United  States."  Prob- 
ably the  Louisiana  o/  Marietta  went  as  far  afield 
as  any  of  the  one  hundred  odd  ships  built  in 
these  years  on  the  Ohio.  The  o£Scial  papers  of 
her  voyage  in  1805,  dated  at  New  Orleans,  Nor^ 
folk  (Virginia),  Liverpool,  Messina,  and  Trieste 
at  the  head  of  the  Adriatic,  are  preserved  today 
in  the  Marietta  College  Library. 

The  growth  of  the  shipbuilding  industry  necessi- 
tated a  readjustment  of  the  districts  for  the  collec- 
tion of  customs.  Columbia  (Cincinnati)  at  first 
served  the  region  of  the  upper  Ohio;  but  in  1803 
the  district  was  divided  and  Marietta  was  made 
the  port  for  the  Pittsburgh-Portsmouth  section 
of  the  river.  In  1807  all  the  western  districte  were 
amalgamated,  and  Pittsburgh,  Charleston  (Wells- 
burg),  Marietta,  Cincinnati,  Louisville,  and  Fort 
Massac  were  made  ports  of  entry. 

The  Louisiana  Purchase  in  1803  gave  a  marked 
impulse  to  inland  shipbuilding;  but  the  embargo 
of  1807,  which  prohibited  foreign  trade,  following 
so  soon,  killed  the  shipyards,  which,  for  a  few 
years,  had  been  so  busy.  The  great  new  industry 
of  the  Ohio  Valley  was  ruined. 


;  ! 


78    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

By  this  time  the  successful  voyage  of  Fulton's 
steamboat,  the  Clermont,  between  New  York  and 
Albany,  had  demonstrated  the  possibilities  of 
steam  navigation.  Not  a  few  men  saw  in  the  novel 
craft  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  Western  river 
traffic;  but  many  doubted  whether  it  was  possible 
to  construct  a  vessel  powerful  enough  to  make  its 
way  upstream  against  such  sweeping  currents  as 
those  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio.  Surely  no 
one  for  a  moment  dreamed  that  in  hardly  more 
than  a  generation  the  Western  rivers  would  carry 
a  tonnage  larger  than  that  of  the  cities  of  the  At- 
lantic seaboard  combined  and  larger  than  that  of 
Great  Britain! 

As  early  as  1805,  two  years  before  the  trip  of  the 
Clermont,  Captain  Keever built  a  "steamboat "on 
the  Ohio,  and  sent  her  down  to  New  Orleans  where 
her  engine  was  to  be  installed.  But  it  was  not 
until  1811  that  the  Orleans,  the  first  steamboat  to 
ply  the  Western  streams,  was  built  at  Pittsburgh, 
from  which  point  she  sailed  for  New  Orleans  in 
October  of  that  year.  The  Comet  and  Vesimua 
quickly  followed,  but  all  three  entered  the  New 
Orleans-Natchez  trade  on  the  lower  river  and  were 
never  seen  again  at  the  headwaters.  As  yet  the 
swift  currents  and  flood  tides  of  the  great  river 


THE  FLATBOAT  AGE  79 

had  not  been  mastered.    It  is  true  that  in  1815  the 
Enterprise  had  made  two  trips  between  New  Or- 
leans and  LouisviUe,  but  this  was  in  time  of  high 
water,  when  counter  currents  and  backwaters  had 
assisted  her  feeble  engine.     In   1816.   however, 
Henry  Shreve  conceived  the  idea  of  raising  the 
engine  out  of  the  hold  and  constructing  an  addi- 
tional deck.     The  Washington,  the  first  double- 
decker,  was  the  result.    The  next  year  this  steam- 
boat made  the  round  trip  from  Louisville  to  New 
Orleans  and  back  in  forty-one  days.    The  doubters 
were  now  convinced. 

For  a  little  while  the  quaint  and  original  river- 
man  held  on  in  the  new  age,  only  to  disappear 
entirely  when  the  colored  roustabout  became  the 
deckhand  of  post-bellum  days.    The  riverman  as  a 
type  was  unknown  except  on  the  larger  rivers  in 
the  earlier  years  of  water  traffic.    What  an  expe- 
rience it  would  be  today  to  rouse  one  of  those  re- 
markable individuals  from  his  dreaming,  as  Davy 
Crockett  did,  with  an  oar,  and  hear  him  howl 
"Hdloe  stranger,   who  axed  you  to  crack  my 
lice?"  —  to  tell  him  in  his  own  Ungo  to  "shut  his 
mouth  or  he  would  get  his  teeth  sunburnt "  —  to 
see  him  crook  his  neck  and  neigh  like  a  stallion  — 
to  answer  his  challenge  in  kind  with  a  flapping  of 


(     ; 


80  TBE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
•TIM  and  a  cock's  crow  —  to  go  to  shore  and  have 
a  scrimmage  such  as  was  never  known  on  a  grid- 
iron —  and  then  to  resolve  with  Crockett,  during 
a  period  of  recuperation,  that  you  would  never 
"wake  up  a  ring-tailed  roarer  with  an  oar  again." 
The  riverman.  his  art,  his  language,  his  tra£5c, 
seem  to  belong  to  days  as  distant  as  those  o! 
which  Homer  sang. 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  PASSmo  SHOW  OF  1800 

FoBEiGN  travelers  who  have  come  to  the  United 
States  have  always  proved  of  great  interest  to 
Americans.  From  Brissot  to  Arnold  Bennett, 
while  m  the  country  they  have  been  fed  and  clothed 
and  transported  wheresoever  they  would  go  -  at 
the  highest  prevailing  prices.   And  after  they  have 

left,  the  records  of  their  sojourn  that  these  travelers 
have  published  have  made  interesting  reading  for 
Americans  aU  over  the  land.  Some  of  these  trans- 
AUantic  visitors  have  been  jaundiced,  disgruntled, 
and  contemptuous;  others  have  shown  themselves 
of  an  open  nature,  discreet,  conscientious,  and 
lair-mmded. 

One  of  the  most  amiable  and  clear-headed  of 
such  foreign  guests  was  Francis  Baily,  later  in  life 
president  of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society  of 
Great  Britain,  but  at  the  time  of  his  American 
tour  a  young  man  of  twenty-two.    His  journey  in 


82  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
1796-97  gave  him  a  wide  experience  of  stage,  flat- 
boat,  and  pack-horse  travel,  and  his  genial  disposi- 
tion, his  observant  eye,  and  his  discriminating 
criticism,  together  with  his  comments  on  the  com- 
mercial features  of  the  towns  and  regions  he  visited, 
make  his  record  particularly  interesting  and  valu- 
able to  the  historian.'  Using  Baily's  journal  as  a 
guide,  therefore,  one  can  today  journey  with  him 
across  the  country  and  note  the  passing  show  as 
he  saw  it  in  this  transitional  period. 

Landing  at  Norfolk,  Virginia,  Baily  was  imme- 
diately introduced  to  an  American  tavern.  Like 
most  travelers,  he  was  surprised  to  find  that  Ameri- 
can taverns  were  "boarding-places,"  frequented 
by  crowds  of  "young,  able-bodied  men  who  seemed 
to  be  as  perfectly  at  leisure  as  the  loungers  of  an- 
cient Europe."  In  those  days  of  few  newspapers, 
the  tavern  everywhere  in  America  was  the  center 
of  information;  in  fact,  it  was  a  common  practice 
for  travelers  in  the  interior,  after  signing  their 
names  in  the  register,  to  add  on  the  same  page  any 
news  of  local  interest  which  they  brought  with 
them.  The  tavern  habitufc,  Baily  remarks,  did 
not  sit  and  drink  after  meals  but  "  wasted"  their 

'Journal  qf  a  Tom  in  UmeUted  Partt  cf  North  Amtrica  in  1731 
and  1797  by  the  late  FraocU  Baily  (London,  IBM). 


THE  PASSING  SHOW  OP  ISOO  83 

timet   billiard,   and  carda.     The  pa«ion  for 
bdhards  was  notorious,  and  Uvem,  in  the  most 
out^f-the-way  places,  though  they  lacked  tht  most 
ordmary  conveniences,  were  nevertheless    rovided  • 
with  bilhard  tables.    This  custom  seems  to  have 
been  especially  true  in  the  South;  and  it  is  signifi- 
oint  that  the  first  taxes  in  Temiessee  levied  before 
the  begmnmg  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  the 
poUtaic  and  taxes  on  billiard  tables  and  studhorses! 
From  Norfolk  Baily  passed  northward  to  BalU- 
more.  paying  a  fare  of  ten  dollars,  and  from  there 

hewenton  to  Philadelphia,  payingsixdollars  more. 
On  the  way  his  stagecoach  stuck  fast  in  a  bog  and 
the  passengers  were  compelled  to  leave  it  until  the 
next  morning.  This  sixty-mile  road  out  of  BalU- 
more  was  evidenUy  one  of  the  worst  in  the  East. 
Ten  years  prior  to  this  date,  Brissot,  a  keen  French 
journalist,  mentions  the  great  ruts  in  iu  heavy  clay 
soil,  the  overturned  trees  which  blocked  the  way 

and  the  unexampled  skilfulnessofthestage  drivers! 
AU  travelers  in  America,  though  differing  on  almost 
eve^-  other  subject,  invariably  praise  the  ability 
of  these  sturdy,  weather-beaten  American  drivers, 
their  kmdness  to  their  horses,  and  their  attention 
to  their  passengers.  Harriet  Martineau  stated 
tUat,  m  her  experience.  American  drivers  as  a  class 


1  I, 
1(11 


84    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COBIBfERCB 

were  marked  by  the  merciful  temper  which  acoom* 
ponies  genius,  and  their  perfection  in  their  art, 
their  fertility  of  resource,  and  the  gentleness  with 
which  they  treated  female  fears  and  fretfulness, 
were  exemplary. 

In  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love  Baily  notes  the 
geniality  of  the  people,  who  by  many  travelers 
are  called  aristocratic,  and  comments  on  Quaker 
opposition  to  the  theater  and  the  inconsequence 
of  the  Feale  Museum,  which  travelers  a  generation 
later  highly  praise.  Proceeding  to  New  York  at  a 
cost  of  six  dollars,  he  is  struck  by  the  uncouthness 
of  the  public  buildings,  churches  excited,  the 
widespread  passion  for  music,  dancing,  and  the 
theater,  the  craz';  for  sleighing,  and  the  promise 
which  the  harbor  gave  of  becoming  the  finest  in 
America.  Not  a  few  travelers  in  this  early  period 
gave  expression  to  their  belief  in  the  future  great- 
ness of  New  York  City.  These  prophecies,  taken 
in  connection  with  the  investment  of  eight  millions 
of  dollai's  which  New  Yorkers  made  in  toU-roads 
in  the  first  seven  years  of  this  new  centuiy,  incline 
one  to  believe  that  the  influence  of  the  Erie  Canal 
as  a  factor  in  the  development  of  the  city  may  have 
been  unduly  emphasized,  great  though  it  was. 

From  New  York  Daily  returned  to  Baltimore 


THE  PASSING  SHOW  OF  I8U0  85 

«dwe„tontoW«hmgton.    The  record,  of  .11 
taiveler,  to  the  «te  of  the  new  national  capiJd 

Zv  H  n™  °"*  ""^  *"''~*»  '•"'tu.e  and  van- 
oudy  descnbe^  as  "dried  up."  «„.«  down."  and 

Mo^tV  *^"  ^^»««"«« Washington. at 
Mount  Vemon.  was  giving  up  tobacco  cultu^and 
was  attemptmg  new  crops  by  a  system  of  wta- 
bon     Cotton  was  being  grown  in  Maryland,  but 

ture.  Tobacco  was  graded  in  Vi,^nia  in  accoitl- 
^ce  w,th  the  rigidity  of  its  inspecin  at  Hr:^r 
^urt  House,  Pittsburgh,  Richmond,  and  Cabin- 

Pomt:eaf  worth  suteenshillingsatRiehmond  was 
worth  twentyH>ne  at  Hanover  Court  House;  if  it 
w^  refused  at  ali  places,  it  was  smuggled  to  the 
West  Indies  or  consumed  in  the  country.    Mead 

fidds,  for  the  planters  preferred  to  clear  new  land 
rather  than  to  enrich  the  old. 
At  Washington  Baily  found  that  lots  to  the 

v^ueofm8.000haabeenso.d.althoughonlyo^e! 
bBU  of  the  proposed  city  had  been  "cleared  "  It 
w«to  be  forty  years  ere  travelers  could  speak 
J^pectfully  of  what  is  now  the  beautiful  city  of 
Washmgton.     In  these  earlier  days,  the  suLts 


86    THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
were  mudholes   divided   by   vacant   fields   and 
"beautified  by  trees,  swamps,  and  cows." 

Departing  for  the  West  by  way  of  Frederick, 
Daily,  like  all  travelers,  was  intensely  interest- 
ed upon  entering  the  rich  limestone  region  which 
stretched  from  Pennsylvania  far  down  into  Vir- 
ginia. It  was  occupied  in  part  by  the  Pennsylvania 
Dutch  and  was  so  famous  for  its  rich  milk  that  it 
was  called  by  many  travelers  the  "Bonnyclabber 
Country. "  Most  Englishmen  were  delighted  with 
this  region  because  they  found  here  the  good  old 
English  breed  of  horses,  that  is,  the  English  hunter 
developed  into  a  stout  coach-horse.  Of  native 
breeds,  Baily  found  animals  of  all  degrees  of 
strength  and  size  down  to  hackneys  of  fourteen 
hands,  as  well  as  the  "vile  dog-horses,"  or  pack- 
horses,  whose  faithful  service  to  the  frontier  could 
in  no  wise  be  appreciated  by  a  foreigner. 

This  region  of  Pennsylvania  was  as  noted  for 
its  wagons  as  for  its  horses.  It  was  this  wheat- 
bearing  belt  that  made  the  common  freight-wagon 
in  its  colors  of  red  and  blue  a  national  institution. 
It  was  in  this  region  of  rich,  well-watered  land  that 
the  maple  tree  gained  its  reputation.  Men  even 
prophesied  that  its  delightful  sap  would  prove  a 
cure  for  slavery,  for,  if  one  family  could  make 


THE  PASSING  SHOW  OP  1800  87 

fifteen  hundred  pounds  of  maple  sugar  in  a  season, 
eighty  thousand  families  could,  at  the  same  rate 
equal  the  output  of  cane  sugar  each  year  from' 
Santo  Domingo! 

Tne  traveler  at  the  begimiing  of  the  centurjr 
nobced  a  change  in  the  temper  of  the  people  as 
well  as  a  change  in  the  soil  when  the  Bonnyclabber 
Omtry  was  reached.    The  time-serving  attitude 
of  the  good  people  of  the  East  now  gave  place  to 
8    consciousness  of  independence"  due,  Baily  re- 
marks, to  the  fact  that  each  man  was  self-sufficient 
and  passed  his  life  "without  regard  to  the  smiles 
and  frowns  of  men  in  power."    This  spirit  was 
handsomely  illustrated  in  the  case  of  one  burly 
Westerner  who  was    "churched"    for   fighting 
Showmg  a  surly  attitude  to  the  deacon-judges  who 
»at  on  his  case,  he  was  threatened  with  civil  prose- 
cution and  imprisonment.     "I  don't  want  free- 
dom,   he  IS  said  to  have  replied,  bitterly;  "I  don't 
even  want  to  live  if  I  can't  knock  down  a  man  who 
calls  me  a  liar." 

Pushing  on  westward  by  way  of  historic  Sideling 
Hill  and  Bedford  to  Statlers,  Baily  found  here  a 
prosperous  millstone  quarry,  which  sold  its  stones 
at  from  fifteen  to  thirty  dollars  a  pair.  Twelve 
years  earher  Washington  had  prophesied  that  the 


i, 


88  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
Alleghanies  would  soon  be  furnishing  millstones 
equal  to  the  best  English  burr.  As  he  crossed 
the  mountains  Baily  found  that  taverns  charged 
the  following  schedule:  breakfast,  eighteen  pence; 
dinner  and  supper  from  two  shillings  to  two  shil- 
lings and  sixpence  each.  Traversing  Laurel  Hill, 
he  reached  Pittsburgh  just  at  the  time  when  it  was 
awakening  to  activity  as  the  trading  center  of 
the  West. 

In  order  to  descend  the  Ohio,  Baily  obtained  a 
flatboat,  thirty-six  feet  long  and  twelve  feet  broad, 
which  drew  eighteen  inches  of  water  and  was 
of  ten  tons  burden.  On  the  way  downstream, 
Charleston  and  Wheeling  were  the  principal  settle- 
ments which  Baily  first  noted.  Ebenezer  Zane,  the 
founder  of  Wheeling,  had  just  opened  across  Ohio 
the  famous  landward  route  from  the  Monongahela 
country  to  Kentucky,  which  it  entered  at  Lime- 
stone, the  present  Maysville.  This  famous  road, 
passing  through  Zanesville,  Lancaster,  and  Chilli- 
cothe,  though  at  that  time  safe  only  for  men  in 
parties,  was  a  common  route  to  and  from  Kentucky. 
On  such  inland  pathways  as  this,  early  travelers 
came  to  take  for  granted  a  hospitality  not  to  be 
found  on  more  frequented  thoroughfares.  In  this 
hospitality,  roughness  and  good  will,  cleanliness 


THE  PASSING  SHOW  OP  1800  89 

tol^"*:,  ^u-"""*"  *"  ""^  '^'  ^*y'«  "^  Eastern 
?"^  ««.d  habxts  of  the  n>ost  primitive  kind,  were 
«ngda,ly  blended.  In  one  instance,  the  trlvj" 
might  be  cordially  assigned  by  the  landlord  to  a 
gooc.  position  in  "the  first  rush  for  a  chance  at  the 

m«ht  be  00  dly  turned  away  because  the  proprie- 

IJ       ^r  u      ""'  '•^  '^^  ^''^  "delate 
Wue^ev.    ";  farther  on.  where  "soap  was  un- 
known   nothmg  clean  but  birds,  nothing  indus- 
^ous  but  pigs,  and  nothing  happy  but  squirrels," 
Darnel  Boone's  daughter  niight  be  seen  in  high- 
heeled  shoes,  attended  by  white  servants  whL 
wages  were  a  dollar  a  week,  skirting  muddy  roads 
-der  a  ten-dollar  bonnet  and  a  six-dollar  p'arasol 
Or.  he  nught  emerge  from  a  lonely  forest  in  Ohio 
or  Indiana  and  come  suddenly  upon  a  party  of 
neighbors  at  a  dreary  tavern,  enjoying  «  L 

shuek^goraharv^t home.    Immediately dubbS 
Doctor."  "Squire."  or  "Colonel"  by  the  hos- 

?„^i  T:"^^"^'"''  '^'  P'-^-.by  would  be  in- 
formed that  he  "should  drink  and  lack  no  good 
thmg.  After  he  had  retired,  as  likely  as  nof  his 
quarters  would  be  invaded  at  one  or  two  o'clock 
m  the  mornmg  by  the  uproarious  company,  and 
the  best  refreshment  of  the  house  would  be  forced 


80    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

upon  him  with  a  hilarity  "created  by  omnipo- 
tent whiskey."  Sometimes,  however,  the  traveler 
would  encounter  pitiful  instances  of  loneliness  in 
the  wide-spread: ag  forests.  One  man  in  passing 
a  ceitain  isolated  cabin  was  implored  by  the  woman 
who  inhabited  it  to  rest  awhile  and  talk,  since  she 
was,  she  confessed,  completely  overwhelmed  by 
"the  lone!" 

Every  traveler  has  remarked  upon  the  yellow 
pallor  of  the  first  inhabitants  of  the  western  forests 
and  doubtless  correctly  attributed  this  sickly  ap- 
pearance to  the  effects  of  malaria  and  miasma. 
The  psychic  influences  of  the  forest  wilderness  also 
weighed  heavily  upon  the  spirits  of  the  settlers, 
although,  as  Baily  notes,  it  was  the  newcomers 
who  felt  the  depression  to  an  exaggerated  degree. 
As  he  says: 

It  is  a  feeling  of  confinement,  which  begins  to  damp 
the  spirits,  from  this  complete  exclusion  of  distant  ob- 
jects. To  travel  day  after  da",  among  trees  of  a  hun- 
dred feet  high,  is  oppressive  to  a  degree  which  those 
cannot  conceive  who  have  not  experienced  it;  and  it 
must  depress  the  spirits  of  the  solitary  settler  to  pass 
years  in  this  itate.  His  visible  horizon  extends  no 
farther  than  the  tops  of  the  trees  which  bound  his 
plantation  —  perhaps  five  hundred  yards.  Upwards 
he  sees  tb;  sun,  and  sky,  and  stars,  but  around  him  an 


1/     ? 


THE  PASSING  SHOW  OP  1800  n 

eternal  forest.  fro«  which  he  can  never  hope  to  emerge- 
-not  so  ma  thickly  settled  district;  he  cannot  th^ 
enjoy  any  freedom  of  prospect,  yet  thereTvarier 
and  some  scope  for  the  imprisoned  vision.    In  a  hi £' 

srs^obta"^  """^  ""'^ "'  ^'-  -y  -™2 

^y  be  obtamed;  and  a  river  is  a  stream  of  light  a. 
weU  as  of  water,  which  feasU  the  eye  with  a  delL^ 
mconceivable  to  the  inhabitants  of  o^  countries 

In  direct  contradiction  to  this  longing  for  soci- 
ety was  the  pa^ion  which  the  first  generation  of 
pioneers  had  for  the  wilderness.    When  the  popu- 
lation of  one  settlement  became  too  thick,  they 
were  seued  by  an  irresistible  impulse  to  "follow 
the  migration. "  as  the  expression  went.    The  easy 
independence  of  the  first  hunter-agriculturalist 
was  upset  by  the  advance  of  immigration.     His 
range  was  curtailed,  his  freedom  limited      His 
very  breath  seems  to  have  become  difficult     So 
he  sold  out  at  a  phenomenal  profit,  put  out  his  fii« 
shouldered  his  gim,  called  his  dog.  and  set  off  agaiii 
in  search  of  the  solitude  he  craved. 

Severe  winter  weather  overtook  Baily  as  he  de- 
scended the  Ohio  River,  until  below  Grave  Creek 
floating  ice  wrecked  his  boat  and  drove  him  ashore. 
Here  in  the  primeval  forest,  far  from  "Merrie 
England,"  Baily  spent  the  Christmas  of  1796  in 
building  a  new  flatboat.    This  task  completed,  he 


92    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

resumed  his  journey.  Passing  Marietta,  where  the 
bad  condition  of  the  winter  roads  prevented  a  visit 
to  a  famous  Indian  mound,  he  reached  Limestone. 
In  due  time  he  sighted  Columbia,  the  metropolis 
of  the  Miami  country.  According  to  P'uly,  the 
sale  of  European  goods  in  this  part  of  the  Ohio 
Valley  netted  the  importers  a  hundred  per  cent. 
Prices  varied  with  the  ease  of  navigation.  When 
ice  blocked  the  Ohio  the  price  of  flour  went  up 
imtil  it  was  eight  dollars  a  barrel;  whiskey  was  a 
dollar  a  gallon;  potatoes,  a  dollar  a  bushel;  and 
bacon,  twelve  cents  a  pound.  At  these  prices,  the 
total  produce  which  went  by  Fort  Massac  in  the 
early  months  of  1800  would  have  been  worth  on 
the  Ohio  River  upwards  of  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars!  In  the  preceding  summer  Baily  quoted 
flour  at  Norfolk  as  selling  at  sixty-three  shil- 
lings a  barrel  of  196  pounds,  or  double  the  price 
it  was  bringing  on  the  ice-gorged  Ohio.  It  is 
by  such  comparisons  that  we  get  some  inkling  of 
the  value  of  western  produce  and  of  the  rates  in 
western  trade. 

After  a  short  stay  at  Cincinnati,  Baily  set  out 
for  tha  South  on  an  "Orleans  boat"  loaded  with 
four  hundred  barrels  of  flour.  At  the  mouth  of 
Pigeon  Creek  he  noted  the  famous  path  to  "Post 


THE  PASSING  SHOW  OP  isoo  as 

St.  VincentV;  (Vincennes).  over  wUch  he  «w 

--o„M.P.twrer- t;-;s:jt 

t^^Oited  Indians  he  comn>ended.    At  Ne^S^ 
ndBaJyn.adeasUyofson.eday.    ThlsS: 

withm  the  pro vnce  of  I^uisiana.  soon  to  be  cedS 
to  Napoleon.  New  Orleans  supplied  this  dS^^ 
..th  merchandise,  but  smuggling  from  the  ZS 

F.«m  New  Madrid  Baily  proceeded  to  Natchez 

rhe  town  did  not  boast  a  tavern,  but.  as  was  true 

up  for  by  the  hospitality  of  its  inhabitants.  Rice 
^d  tobacco  were  being  grown.  Baily  notes,  aid 
Georgian  cotton  was  being  raised  in  L  neigC 

their  owners  received  a  royalty  of  one-eighth  of 
thepnxluct.   The  cotton  was  sent  to  New  wis 

weight.  Froin  Natchez  to  New  Orleans  the  charge 
fo  transporteUon  by  flatboat  was  a  dollar  anZ 
I«a«abag.    The  bags  contained  from  one  hu^S'cd 


M 


n 


M    THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

and  fifty  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  and 
each  flatboat  carried  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
bags.  Baily  adds  two  items  to  the  stoiy  of  the 
development  of  the  mechanical  operation  of  water- 
craft.  He  tells  us  that  in  the  fall  of  1790  a  party 
of  "Dutchmen,"  in  the  Pittsburgh  region,  fash- 
ioned a  boat  with  side  paddle  wheels  which  were 
turned  by  a  treadmill  worked  by  eight  horses 
under  the  deck.  This  strange  boat,  which  passed 
Baily  when  he  was  wrecked  on  the  Ohio  near  Grave 
Creek,  appeared  "to  go  with  prodigious  swiftness." 
Baily  dors  not  state  how  much  business  the  boat 
did  on  its  downward  trip  to  New  Orleans  but 
contents  himself  with  remarking  that  the  owners 
expected  the  return  trip  to  prove  very  irofit- 
able.  When  he  met  the  boat  on  its  upward  voyage 
at  Natchez,  it  had  covered  three  hundred  miles  in 
six  days.  It  was,  however,  not  loaded,  "so  little 
occasion  was  there  for  a  vessel  of  this  kind."  As 
this  nm  between  New  Orleans  and  Natchez  came 
to  be  one  of  the  most  profitable  in  the  United 
States  in  the  early  days  of  steamboating,  less 
than  fifteen  years  later,  the  experience  of  these 
"Flying  Dutchmen"  affords  a  very  pretty  proof 
that  something  more  than  a  means  of  transporta- 
tion is  needed  to  create  commerce.    The  owners 


THE  PASSING  SHOW  OP  1800  9, 

abandoned  their  craft  nf  v-..  u      . 

the  Lead  of  the  Oh.V.      T  ^*""  *^*=^"  «» 

wnere  it  is  now  emoIovM)  in  ti._ 
United  States  "    uVT  ~°"°'''«' "^  t^^* 

andasidf^^dr^^efrdr;  T^""'"'"'  ""^^ 
Western  wXs  0!^^^^'^  IT  °"  ""^ 
.-before  the  ninete:^^::.!:^-^;.^ 

BaJy  finally  reached  New  Or^nT^l    •, 
then  contained  about  a  thn„.    Tt         ^^ '^'*J' 

««» ..  P«i-i»^,tt':::rj:'  't "" 

had  been  caught  bv    "'fV'"^  ^"  ?»'"«'' which 

ApalousacounS  "  ""^  "^^''^'^^ 

Baily  had  intended  to  return  to  New  York  by 


\l 


96  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
sea,  but  on  his  arrival  at  New  Orleans  he  was  un- 
able to  find  a  ship  sailing  to  New  York.  He  there- 
fore decided  to  proceed  northward  by  way  of  the 
long  and  dangerous  Natchez  Trace  and  the  Ten- 
nessee Path.  Though  few  Europeans  had  made 
this  laborious  journey  before  1800,  the  Natchez 
Trace  had  been  for  many  years  the  land  route  of 
thousands  of  returning  rivermen  who  had  de- 
scended the  Mississippi  in  flatboat  and  barge.  In 
practically  all  cases  these  men  carried  with  them 
the  proceeds  of  their  investment,  and,  as  on  every 
thoroughfare  in  the  world  traveled  by  those  re- 
turning from  market,  so  here,  too,  highwaymen 
and  desperadoes,  red  and  white,  built  their  lairs 
and  lay  in  wait.  Some  of  the  most  revolting  crimes 
rl  the  American  frontier  were  committed  on  these 
northward  pathways  and  their  branches. 

Joining  a  party  bound  for  Natchez,  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  distant  overland,  Baily  proceeded 
to  Lake  Pontchartrain  and  thence  "north  by  west 
through  the  woods,"  by  way  of  the  ford  of  the 
Tangipahoa,  Cooper's  Plantation,  Tickfaw  River, 
Amite  River,  and  the  "Hurricane"  (the  path  of  a 
tornado)  to  the  beginning  of  the  Apalousa  country. 
This  tangled  region  of  stunted  growth  was  reputed 
to  be   even  miles  in  width  from  "shore  to  shore" 


THE  PASSING  SHOW  OF  1800  97 

Tkej  teicbrf   mtbout   IiicMmi   ik.   , 

blapt  Inor.  t  ,  "'"*-'"  01  the  soil  from 

black  loan,  to  sandy  gravel,  which  indicated  that 


08  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
they  had  reached  the  Piedmont  region.  Indian 
marauders  stole  one  horse  from  the  camp,  and  three 
of  the  party  fell  ill.  The  others,  pressed  for  food, 
were  compelled  to  leave  the  sick  men  in  an  im- 
provised camp  and  to  hasten  on,  promising  to 
send  to  their  aid  the  first  Indian  they  should  meet 
"who  understood  herbs."  After  appalling  bard- 
ships,  they  crossed  the  Tennessee  and  entered  the 
Nashville  country,  where  the  roads  were  good 
enough  for  coaches,  for  they  met  two  on  the  way. 
Thence  Baily  proceeded  to  Knoxville,  seeing,  as 
he  went,  droves  of  cattle  bound  for  the  settlements 
of  west  Tennessee.  With  his  arrival  at  Knoxville, 
his  journal  ends  abruptly;  but  from  other  sources 
we  learn  that  he  sailed  from  New  York  on  his 
return  to  England  in  January,  1798.  His  interef^- 
ing  record,  however,  remained  impublished  until 
after  his  death  in  1844. 

Not  only  to  Francis  Baily  but  to  scores  of  other 
travelers,  even  those  of  unfriendly  eyes,  do  modem 
readers  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude.  These  men  have 
preserved  a  multitude  of  pictures  and  a  wealth  of 
data  which  would  otherwise  have  been  lost.  The 
men  of  America  in  those  days  were  writing  the 
story  of  their  deeds  not  on  parchment  or  paper 
but  on  the  virgin  soil  of  the  wilderness.     But 


THE  PASSING  SHOW  OF  1800  90 

«>ough  %  rtage  driver,  the  Uvcm  keeper.  «nd 
the  burly  nvermw  left  no  de«^ption  of  the  life  of 

lK.m  other  land,  have  bequeathed  to  us  their  thou- 
«nd.  of  pages  full  of  the  enterprising  Lfe  of  these 
pioneer  day.  u.  the  history  of  Americw.  conuneree 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE   BIRTH   OF   THE   STEAMBOAT 


The  crowds  who  welcomed  the  successive  stages 
in  the  development  of  American  transportation 
were  much  alike  in  essentials  —  they  were  all 
optimistic,  self-congratulatory,  irrepressible  in 
their  enthusiasm,  and  undaunted  in  their  outlook. 
Dickens,  perhaps,  did  not  miss  the  truth  widely 
when,  in  speaking  of  stage  driving,  he  said  that  the 
cry  of  "  Go  Ahead !"  in  America  and  of  "  All  Right ! " 
in  England  were  typical  of  the  civilizations  of  the 
two  countries.  Right  or  wrong,  "Go  Ahead!" 
has  always  been  the  underlying  passion  of  all  men 
interested  in  the  development  of  commerce  and 
transportation  in  these  United  States. 

During  the  era  of  river  improvement  already 
described,  men  of  imagination  were  fascinated 
with  the  idea  of  propelling  boats  by  mechanical 
means.  Even  when  Washington  fared  westward 
in  1784,  he  met  at  Bath,  Virginia,  one  of  these 

100 


THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  STEAMBOAT     101 
early  experimenters,  James  Rumsey,  who  haled 
him  forthwith  to  a  neighboring  meadow  to  watch 
a  secret  trial  of  a  boat  novcd  l.y  iroans  of  machin- 
ery which  worked  setti  g-iwles  similar  to  the  iron- 
shod  poles  used  by  th.-  :.Verinen  .o  propel  their 
boats  upstream.    "The  model,"  wrote  Washing- 
ton, "and  its  operation  upon  the  water,  which  had 
been  made  to  run  pretty  swift,  not  only  convinced 
me  of  what  I  before  thought  next  to,  if  not  quite 
impracticable,  but  that  it  might  be  to  the  greatest 
possible  utility  in  inland  navigation."    Later  he 
mentions  the  "discovery"  as  one  of  those  "cir- 
cumstances which  have  combined  to  render  the 
present  epoch  favorable  above  all  others  for  secur- 
ing a  large  portion  of  the  produce  of  the  west- 
ern settlements,  and  of  the  fur  and  peltry  of  the 
Lakes,  also." 

From  that  day  forward,  scarcely  a  week  passed 
without  some  new  development  in  the  long  and 
difficult  struggle  to  improve  the  means  of  naviga- 
tion.  Among  the  scores  of  men  who  engaged  in 
this  engrossing  but  discouraging  work,  there  is  one 
whom  the  world  is  coming  to  honor  more  highly 
than  in  previous  years  —  John  Fitch,  of  Connec- 
ticut. Pennsylvania,  and  Kentucky.  As  early  as 
August.  1785,  Fitch  launched  on  a  rivulet  in  Bucks 


lOS  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
County,  Pennsylvania,  a  boat  propelled  by  an 
engine  which  moved  an  endless  chain  to  which 
little  paddles  were  attached.  The  next  year. 
Fitch's  second  boat,  operated  by  twelve  paddles, 
six  on  a  side  —  an  arrangement  suggesting  the 
"side- wheeler"  of  the  future  —  successfully  plied 
the  Delaware  off  "Conjuror's  Point,"  as  the  scene 
of  Fitch's  labors  was  dubbed  in  whimsical  amuse- 
ment and  derision.  In  1787  Rumsey,  encouraged 
by  Franklin,  fashioned  a  boat  propelled  by  a 
stream  of  water  taken  in  at  the  prow  and  ejected 
at  the  stem.  In  1788  Fitch's  third  boat  traversed 
the  distance  from  Philadtiphia  to  Burlington  on 
numerous  occasions  and  ran  as  a  regular  packet 
in  1790,  covering  over  a  thousand  miles.  In  this 
model  Fitch  shifted  the  paddles  from  the  sides  to 
the  rear,  thus  anticipating  in  principle  the  modem 
stem-wheeler. 

It  was  doubtless  Fitch's  experiments  in  178fi  that 
led  to  the  first  plan  in  America  to  operate  a  land 
vehicle  by  steam.  Oliver  Evans,  a  neighbor  and 
acquaintance  of  Fitch's,  petition'?d  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Legislature  in  1786  for  the  right  of  operating 
wagons  propelled  by  steam  on  the  highways  of  that 
State.  This  petition  was  derisively  rejected;  but  a 
■imilai  one  made  to  the  Legislature  of  Maryland 


m  THE  PATHS  OP  INlAXn  COMMERCE 

Ccunty,  Pdinsjlvsnia.  a  boat  propelled  by  ac 
engine  which  m-vid  "li  ..ndJes?  .-hain  to  which 
little  paddies  «.-..  ati»,hf,i.  'Mr-  next  year. 
Fitcirs  mtoLHi  '.tat  oiMTalcti  bv  twelve  paddles, 
:<  Oil  a  ?^.»,     -  an  airanjfcmeni   sut-^sling  the 


•ruii.  plied 
''u:  scene 
■■■  (imusp- 

,  -^  ..arag«>d 


'•.side-'vhMi.r     uf  th.-  future  - 
tho  l)fU«aii-  off  ■Conjuror's,  - 
<rf  Fitc-h's  It,'sr«s  si-as  dubi)o<l  •: 
m-'tt  x!„l   k.r.a,.,a.    Ib  17H7  iijuj,* 

at  the  iit^irti,    1/1  ;*.h.^  i  .f.  - 

the  distanee  how  I'hiiadeipi,,,:  \  ,  ^  .  .,  .,,„,.,  ,„j 

numerous  otcfuions  and  ran  it^^  n  n-gula,  jwrket 

in  1730,  coverins  over  ;>  Ihousf-r.d  miles.     In  t!,is 

niod. '.  Fitch  ,.hifie<l  the  paddles  from  the  vde^  to 

ihc  roar,  th-i>  antieip«ting  in  principle  the  i.iodcrn 

siern-whceler. 

I »  ^as doubtl-s  Fitch  s  eJiptrinienfs  J  i  ]  785  that 

m  ABi«rica,  to  opef«te  r  lan.j 

'i>v«<r  Ivvati,,  a  ne-^'hbor  and 

a«qt«ut...  . ,.  ,,   fK-tltioned  the  Penii^yl- 

VWIJB  ItR.  -.,     .,„.  (1,^.  ^^{,j  ^^f  OfXTatillK 

wag.^n»  pre..-    :  ^;'u..th.- highways  of  that 

SUte.    This  petit jca  •*«  derisively  rejected ;  but  ft 
similar  one  uwk  to  th;-  LcgihlAtiirc  o{  Mar^  hiu J 


THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  STEAMBOAT     lOS 

was  granted  on  the  ground  that  such  action  could 
hurt  nobody.  Evans  in  1802  took  fiery  revenge 
on  the  scoffers  by  actually  running  his  little  five- 
horse-power  carriage  through  Philadelphia.  The 
rate  of  speed,  however,  was  so  slow  that  the  idea 
of  moving  vehicles  by  steam  was  still  considered 
useless  for  practical  purposes.  Eight  years  later, 
Evans  offered  to  wager  $3000  that,  on  a  level  road, 
he  could  make  a  carriage  driven  by  steam  equal  the 
speed  of  the  swiftest  horse,  but  he  found  no  re- 
sponse. In  1812  he  asserted  that  he  was  willing  to 
wager  that  he  could  drive  a  steam  carriage  on  level 
rails  at  a  rate  of  fifteen  miles  an  hour.  Evans  thus 
anticipated  the  belief  of  Stephenson  that  steam- 
driven  vehicles  would  travel  best  on  railed  tracks. 
In  the  development  of  the  steamboat  almost  all 
earlier  means  of  propulsion,  natural  and  artificial, 
were  used  as  models  by  the  inventors.  The  fins 
of  fishes,  the  webbed  feet  of  amphibious  birds,  the 
paddles  of  the  Indian,  and  the  poles  and  oars  of 
the  riverman,  were  all  imitated  by  the  patient 
inventors  struggling  with  the  problem.  Rumsey's 
first  effort  was  a  copy  of  the  old  setting-pole  idea. 
Fitch's  model  of  1785  had  side  paddle  wheels  oper- 
ated by  an  endless  chain.  Pitch's  second  and  third 
models  were  practically  paddle-wheel  models,  one 


104  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
having  the  paddles  at  the  side  and  the  other  at  the 
stem.    Onnsbee  of  Connecticut  made  a  model, 
in  1792,  on  the  plan  of  a  duck's  foot.   Morey  made 
what  may  be  called  the  first  real  stem-wheeler  in 
1704.    Two  years  later  Fitch  ran  a  veritable  screw 
propeller  on  Collect  Pond  near  New  York  City. 
Although  General  Benjamin  Tupper  of  Massa- 
chusetts had  been  fashioning  devices  of  this  char- 
acter eight  years  previously.  Fitch  was  the  first  to 
apply  the  idea  effectively.    In  1798  he  evolved  the 
strange,  amphibious  creation  known  as  his  "model 
of  1798,"  which  has  never  been  adequately  ex- 
plained.   It  was  a  steamboat  on  iron  wheels  pro- 
vided with  flanges,  as  though  it  was  intended  to  be 
run  on  submerged  tracks.    What  may  have  been 
the  idea  of  its  inventor,  living  out  his  last  gloomy 
days  in  Kentucky,  may  never  be  known;  but  it  is 
possible  to  see  in  this  anomalous  machine  an  antici- 
pation of  the  locomotive  not  approached  by  any 
other  American  of  the  time.    Thus,  prior  to  1800 
almost  every  type  of  mechanism  for  the  propulsion 
of  steamboats  had  been  suggested  and  tried;  and 
in  1804,  Stevens's  twin-screw  propeller  completed 
the  list. 

It  is  not  alone  Fitch's  development  of  the  de- 
vices of  the  endless  chain,  paddle  wheel,  and  screw 


THE  BIHTH  OF  THE  STEAMBOAT     lOS 

propeller  and  of  his  puzzling  earth-and-water 
creature  that,  gives  luster  to  his  name.  His  pro- 
phetic insight  into  the  fi-ture  national  importance 
of  the  steamboat  and  his  conception,  as  an  inven- 
tor, of  his  moral  obbgations  to  the  people  at  large 
were  as  original  and  striking  in  the  science  of  that 
age  as  were  his  models. 

The  early  years  of  the  national  life  of  the  United 
States  were  the  golden  age  of  monopoly.  Every 
colony,  as  a  matter  of  course,  had  granted  to  cer- 
tam  men  special .  privileges,  and,  as  has  ah-eady 
been  pointed  out,  the  questions  of  monopolies  and 
combinations  in  restraint  of  trade  had  arisen  even 
80  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Interwoven  inextricably  with  these  problems  was 
the  whole  problem  of  colonial  rivalry,  which  in  its 
later  form  developed  into  an  insistence  on  state 
rights.  Ever^  improvement  in  the  means  of  trans- 
portotion,  every  development  of  natural  resources, 
every  new  invention  was  inevitably  considered 
from  the  standpoint  of  sectional  interests  and  with 
a  view  to  its  monopolistic  possibilities.  This  was 
particularly  true  in  the  case  of  the  steamboat, 
because  of  iU  limiUtion  to  rivers  and  bays  which 
could  be  specifically  enumerated  and  defined. 
For  instance.  Washington  in  1784  attests  the  fact 


106  THK  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COBOfEKCE 

that  Rumsey  operated  his  mechanical  boat  at 
Bath  in  secret  "until  he  saw  the  effect  of  an  appli- 
cation he  was  about  to  make  to  the  Assembly  of 
this  State,  for  a  reward."  The  application  was 
successful,  and  Rumsey  was  awarded  a  monopoly 
in  Virginia  waters  for  ten  years. 

Fitch,  on  th ;  other  hand,  when  he  applied  to 
Congress  in  1785,  desired  merely  to  obtain  official 
encouragement  and  intended  to  allow  his  invention 
to  be  used  by  all  comers.  Meeting  only  with  rebuff, 
he  realized  that  his  only  hope  of  organizing  a 
company  that  could  provide  working  capital  lay 
in  securing  mcnopolistic  privileges.  In  1786  he 
accordingly  appKed  to  the  individual  States  and 
secured  the  sole  right  to  operate  steamboats  on 
the  waterways  of  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia.  How  different 
would  have  been  the  story  of  the  steamboat  if 
Congress  had  accepted  Fitch  at  his  word  and  cre- 
ated a  precedent  against  monopolistic  rights  on 
American  rivers! 

Fitch,  in  addition  to  the  high  purpose  of  de- 
voting his  new  invention  to  the  good  of  the  nation 
without  personal  considerations,  must  be  credited 
with  perceiving  at  the  very  beginning  the  peculiar 
importance  of  the  steamboat  to  the  American  West. 


THE  BIRTH  OP  THE  STEAMBOAT  lOT 
Hia  original  application  to  Congress  in  1785 
opened:  "The  subscriber  begs  leave  to  lay  at  the 
feet  of  0>ngress,  an  attempt  he  has  made  to  facili- 
tate the  internal  Navigation  of  the  United  States, 
adapted  especially  to  the  Waters  of  the  Mississippi." 
At  another  time  with  prophetic  vision  he  wrote: 
"The  Grand  and  Principle  object  must  be  on  the 
Atlantick,  which  would  soon  overspread  the  wild 
forests  of  America  with  people,  and  make  us  the 
most  oppulent  Empire  on  Earth.  Pardon  me, 
generous  public,  for  suggesting  ideas  that  cannot 
be  dijested  at  this  day." 

Foremost  in  exhibiting  high  civic  and  patriotic 
motives.  Fitch  was  also  foremost  in  appreciating 
the  importance  of  the  steamboat  in  the  expansion 
of  American  trade.  This  significance  was  also 
dearly  perceived  by  his  brilliant  successor,  Robert 
Fulton.  That  the  West  and  its  commerce  were 
always  predominant  in  Fulton's  great  schemes  is 
proved  by  words  which  he  addressed  in  1803  to 
James  Monroe,  American  Ambassador  to  Great 
Britain:  "You  have  perhaps  heard  of  the  success 
of  my  experiments  for  navigating  boats  by  steam 
engines  and  you  will  feel  the  importance  of  estab- 
lishing such  boats  on  the  Mississippi  and  other 
rivers  of  the  United  States  as  soon  as  possible." 


108  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

Robert  Fulton  had  been  interested  in  steamboat* 
for  a  period  not  definitely  known,  possibly  since  his 
sojourn  in  Philadelphia  in  the  days  of  Fitch's  early 
efiForts.  That  he  profited  by  the  other  inventor's 
efforts  at  the  time,  however,  is  not  suggested  by 
any  of  his  biographers.  He  subsequently  went  to 
London  and  gave  himself  up  to  the  study  and 
practice  of  engineering.  There  he  later  met  James 
Bumsey,  who  came  to  England  in  1788,  and  by 
him  no  doubt  was  informed,  if  he  was  not  already 
aware,  of  the  experiments  and  models  of  Rumsey 
and  Fitch.  He  obtained  the  loan  of  Fitch's  plans 
and  drawings  and  made  liis  own  trial  of  various 
existing  devices,  such  as  oars,  paddles,  duck's  feet, 
and  Fitch's  endless  chain  with  "resisting-boards" 
attached.  Meanwhile  Fulton  was  abo  devoting 
his  attention  to  problems  of  canal  construction 
and  to  the  development  of  submarine  boats  and 
submarine  explosives.  He  was  engaged  in  these 
researches  in  France  in  1801  when  the  new  Ameri- 
can minister,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  arrived,  and 
the  two  men  soon  formed  a  friendship  destined 
to  have  a  vital  and  enduring  influence  upon  the 
development  of  steam  navigation  on  the  inland 
waterways  of  America. 

Livingston  already  had  no  little  experience  in 


THE  BIRTH  OP  THE  STEAMBOAT  109 
the  same  field  of  invention  as  Fulton.  In  1798  he 
had  obtained,  for  a  period  of  twenty  years,  the 
right  to  operate  steamboats  on  all  the  waters  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  a  monopoly  which  had  just 
lapsed  owing  to  the  death  of  Fitch.  In  the  same 
year  Livingston  had  built  a  steamboat  which  had 
made  three  miles  an  hour  on  the  Hudson.  He  had 
experimented  with  most  of  the  models  then  in 
existence  —  upright  paddles  at  the  side,  endless- 
chain  paddles,  and  stem  paddle  wheels.  Fulton 
was  soon  inspired  to  resume  his  efforts  by  Living- 
ston's account  of  his  own  experiments  and  of  recent 
advances  in  England,  where  a  steamboat  had  navi- 
gated the  Thames  in  1801  and  a  year  later  the 
famous  stem-wheeler  Charlotte  Dundaa  had  towed 
boats  of  140  tons'  burden  on  the  Forth  and  Clyde 
Canal  at  the  rate  of  five  miles  an  hour.  In  this 
same  year  Fulton  and  Livingston  made  successful 
experiments  on  the  Seine. 

It  is  fortunate  that,  in  one  particular,  Living- 
ston's influence  did  not  prevail  with  Fulton,  for 
the  American  Minister  was  distinctly  prejudiced 
against  paddle  wheels.  Although  Livingston  had 
previously  ridden  as  a  passenger  on  Morey's  stem- 
wheeler  at  the  rate  of  five  miles  an  hoiu*,  yet 
he  had  turned  a  deaf  ear  when  his  partner  in 


110  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCB 

experimentation,  Nicholas  J.  Roosevelt,  bad  in- 
sisted strongly  on  "  throwing  wheels  over  the  sides." 
At  the  beginning,  Fulton  himself  was  inclined  to 
agree  with  Livingston  in  this  respect;  but,  prob- 
ably late  in  1803,  he  began  to  investigate  more  care- 
fully the  possibilities  of  the  paddle  wheel  as  used 
twice  in  America  by  Morey  and  by  four  or  five 
experimenters  in  Europe.  In  1804  an  eight-mile 
trip  which  Fulton  made  on  the  Charlotte  Dundai 
in  an  hour  and  twenty  minutes  established  his 
faith  in  the  undeniable  superiority  of  two  fimda- 
mental  factors  of  early  navigation — paddle  wheels 
and  British  engines.  Fulton's  splendid  fame  rests, 
and  rightly  so,  on  his  perception  of  the  fact  that 
no  mere  ingenuity  of  design  could  counterbalance 
weakness,  uncertainty,  and  inefficiency  in  the  me- 
chanism which  was  intended  to  make  a  steamboat 
run  and  keep  running.  As  early  as  November,  1803, 
Fulton  had  written  to  Boulton  and  Watt  of  Bir- 
mingham that  he  had  "not  confidence  in  any  other 
engines  "  than  theirs  and  that  he  was  seeking  a  means 
of  getting  one  of  those  engines  to  America.  "  I  can- 
not establish  the  boat  without  the  engine,"  he  now 
emphatically  wrote  to  James  Monroe,  then  Ambas- 
sador to  the  Court  of  St.  James.  "The  question 
then  is  shall  we  or  shall  we  not  have  such  boats." 


THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  STEAMBOAT  111 
But  there  were  difficulties  in  the  way.  Though 
England  forbade  the  exportation  of  engines,  Ful- 
ton knew  that,  in  numerous  instances,  this  rule 
had  not  been  enforced,  and  he  had  hopes  of  success. 
"  The  British  Government, "  Fulton  wrote  Monroe, 
"must  have  little  friendship  or  even  civility  toward 
America,  if  they  refuse  such  a  request."  Before 
the  steamboat  which  Fulton  and  Livingston  pro- 
posed to  build  in  America  could  be  operated  there 
was  another  obstacle  to  be  surmounted.  The 
rights  of  steam  navigation  of  New  York  waters 
which  Livingston  had  obtained  on  the  death  of 
Fitch  in  1708  had  lapsed  because  of  his  failure  to 
nm  a  steamboat  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour, 
which  was  one  provision  of  the  grant.  In  April, 
1803,  the  grant  was  renewed  to  Livingston,  Roose- 
velt, and  Fulton  jointly  for  another  period  of 
twenty  years,  and  the  date  when  the  boat  was 
to  make  the  required  four  miles  an  hour  was 
extended  finally  to  1807. 

Any  one  who  is  inclined  to  criticize  the  Living- 
ston-Roosevelt-Fulton monopoly  which  now  came 
into  existence  should  remember  that  the  previous 
state  grants  formed  a  precedent  of  no  slight 
moment.  The  whole  proceeding  was  in  perfect 
accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  times,  for  it  was  an 


112  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

era  of  speculation  and  monopoly  ushered  in  by  the 
toll-road  and  turnpike  organizations,  when  prob- 
ably no  less  than  two  hundred  companies  were 
formed.  It  was  young  America  showing  itself  in 
an  unmistakable  manner  —  "conceived  in  liberty" 
and  starting  on  the  long  road  to  learn  that  obedi- 
ence to  law  and  respect  for  public  rights  constitute 
true  liberty.  Finally,  it  must  be  pointed  out  that 
Fulton,  like  his  famous  predecessor.  Fitch,  was 
impelled  by  motives  far  higher  than  the  love  of 
personal  gain.  "I  consider  them  [steamboats]  of 
such  infinite  use  in  America,"  he  wrote  Monroe, 
"that  I  should  feel  a  culpable  neglect  toward  my 
country  if  I  relaxed  for  a  moment  in  pursuing  every 
necessary  measure  for  carrying  it  into  effect." 
And  later,  when  repeating  his  argument,  he 
says:  "I  plead  this  not  for  myself  alone  but  for 
our  country." 

It  is  now  evident  why  the  alliance  of  Fulton  with 
Livingston  was  of  such  epoch-making  importance, 
for,  although  it  may  have  in  some  brief  measure 
delayed  Fulton's  adoption  of  paddle  wheels,  it 
gave  him  an  entry  to  the  waters  of  New  York. 
Livingston  and  Fulton  thus  supplemented  each 
other;  Livingston  possessed  a  monopoly  and  Ful- 
ton a  correct  estimate  of  the  value  of  paddle  wheels 


f 


ttOBBRT  FUITON'S  FIRST  8T, 

'  Bhfcud  Varick  OeWiit. 
|iat<irinl  Swriety.    Tlie  ii 
r  pjcturi!  npraaeni 
fcket4wrt  in  IgOT.  d|wirn 
pa  af  pcnau 

>el»u«alaqpi|l^i 

i  rctaiocd.    Tt  wu  iu» 
iiPJ^^peaniDce  is  shows  4i 
I  Sucfil>tioa  i«  tha  tol 
i  BartkalaUKW,  for  mdm  ti 


114  TlIE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

era  of  speculation  und  m<?nopoly  ushered  in  by  the 
toll-road  and  turnpike  organiiutions.  when  prob- 
ably no  less  tUisu  twi(  hundred  companies  were 
formed.  It  w/a  young  America  showing  iLself  in 
an  uumistakable  manner  —  "conceiveil  in  liberty" 
and  alarting  on  the  long  road  to  le^rii  th.it  obedi- 
ence to  licv  Hii'it<i(Mn(AivK  ml»)n  EfjfteMaHi.MSJiea 
tnie  lib<;i,^^  „iiiijftJJi>,#„piuftt'ffc«fiMH*V  ii,«Ulffll|Afcaiw.iU 

persouaii^i*.    .tl*l(**l.«i^''rt»rt-v*«;|«W?H  ','» P'V.f "■"'''  *";" 

■  «liaa->  ilii«T>-ll'4  b»!iil^!eovi  It  v.l  l)-»lt9.ifnq  .snol  lytt  001  l[iod« 

■'  "  •'  '"'W'rt'irfJlJii^rtl^.WWtWI  hni.iW.,W  %.i:,h.M  ,»F«,T».1od  ♦*  V, 

"that  I  «lib«*(<ifcirii»l«}»W!ih»'^-«*<w»'»'?'^'S".NS '■''"'"'" 

mf(     lluil  •.llljiirltiw  bwalq  «■»*  «lj-<if-»  aif?  bn«  .Wbiw  iii  )wl 

Countrj-  ^  y,^i^^.  §^V  (K(W<<  WW  H  •  ..H«a«Mii»f»w*»m|iii!.  laaisii.. 

J     J     ,  puiJaoSiiMD  jaiwqilol  911}  «i  noilqiTMni  9ifJS«r{n«q(noMA 

And    la  l.a^j^j'ft  ,^WA(fl»ytta  ^Jw.  -.oigtiwaloiKwa  li«<'H  .1 " 

say.:  ■■i'y-'»'***'T«**,.'M,,.,^,fjPi^^»^^^£»^';;;:; 

WW  coun  lf»  ,„«jo««*H  TMiil  •• 

it  ii> now  -■viJent  why  the aliianceiWi<T^ff'^Trt ■^"■"*" 
Li»«««»»jf»i  was  of  »m>lj  .-poi-Ji-makiug  importance, 
fi»  «tt.hou^  it  tti.4S-  h***  in  name  brief  mesJBure 
<kia«!.£t  FiiJU.n'»  a^ipt'»m  »*  paddle  «'heels,  it 
gftv«r  Mat  on  rntr>  U'  Unr  waters  of  New  York. 
Livinf|>stua  and  F>at««  thn*  supplemented  each 
Othffr;  Livi«4taifm  po(i«»  **>t)  a  monopoly  nnd  Ful- 
taa  a  correct  c»««aate  of  ihe  value  of  paddie  wheels 


THE  BIBTH  OF  THE  STEAMBOAT  IIS 
and,  secondly,  of  Boulton  and  Watt  engines.  It 
was  a  rare  combination  destined  to  crown  with 
success  a  long  period  of  effort  and  discouragement 
in  the  history  of  navigation. 

After  considerable  delay  and  difficulty,  the 
two  Americans  obtained  permission  to  export  the 
necessary  engine  from  Great  Britain  and  shipped  it 
to  New  York,  whither  Fulton  himself  proceeded 
to  construct  his  steamboat.  The  hull  was  built 
by  Charles  Brown,  a  New  York  shipbuilder,  and 
the  Boulton  and  Watt  machinery,  set  in  masonry, 
was  finally  installed. 

The  voyage  to  Albany,  against  a  stiff  wind,  occu- 
pied thirty rtwo  hours;  the  return  trip  was  made 
in  thirty.  H.  Freeland,  one  of  the  spectators 
who  stood  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  when  the 
boat  made  its  maiden  voyage  in  1807,  gives  the 
following  description: 

Some  imagined  it  to  be  a  sea-monster  whilst  others 
did  not  hesitate  to  express  their  belief  that  it  was  a 
Kgn  of  the  approaching  judgment.  What  seemed 
strange  in  the  vessel  was  the  substitution  of  lofty  and 
strtught  smoke-pipes,  rising  from  the  deck,  instead  of 
the  gracefully  tapered  masts  .  .  .  and,  in  place  of  the 
spars  and  rigging,  the  curious  play  of  the  walking- 
bieam  and  pistons,  and  the  slow  turning  and  splash- 
ing of  the  huge  and  naked  paddle-wheels,   met  the 


114  THE  PATBS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
astonished  gaze.  The  dense  clouds  of  smoke,  as  they 
rose,  wave  upon  wave,  added  still  more  to  the  wondeA 
ment  of  the  rustics On  her  return  trip  the  curi- 
osity she  excited  was  scarce:ly  less  intense  .  .  .  fishe.. 
men  became  terrified,  and  rode  homewards,  and  they 
saw  nothmg  but  destruction  devasUting  their  Sshini 
grounds,  whilst  t'le  wreaths  of  black  vapor  and  rushi^ 
noise  of  the  paddle-wheels,  foaming  with  the  stirred^ 
water,  produced  great  excitement.  ... 

With  the  launching  of  the  Clermont  on  the  Hud- 
son a  new  era  in  American  history  began.    How 
quick  with  life  it  was  many  of  the  preceding  pages 
bear  testimony.    The  infatuation  of  the  public  for 
building  toll  and  turnpike  roads  was  now  at  its 
height.    Only  a  few  years  before,  a  comprehensive 
scheme  of  internal  improvements  had  been  out- 
lined by  Jefferson's  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
Albert  Gallaiin.    When  a  boy.  it  is  said,  he  had 
lain  on  the  floor  of  a  surveyor's  cabin  on  the  west- 
em   slopes   of  the  Alleghanies  and  had  heard 
Washington  describe  to  a  rough  crowd  of  Western- 
ers his  plan  to  unite  the  Great  Lakes  wiUi  tiie 
Potomac  in  one  mighty  chain  of  inland  commerce. 
Jefferson's  Administration  was  now  about  to  de- 
vote the  surpk  i  in  tiie  Treasury  to  the  construc- 
tion of  national  highways  and  canals.    The  Cum- 
berland Road,  to  be  built  across  tiie  Alleghanies 


THE  BIETH  OP  THE  STEAMBOAT     H5 
by  the  War  Department,  was  authorized  by  the 
IVesident  in  the  same  year  in  which  the  Chrmont 
made  her  first  trip;  and  Jesse  Hawley.  at  his  table 
m  a  litUe  room  in  a  Pittsburgh  boarding  house, 
was  even  now  penning  in  a  series  of  articles,  pub- 
lished in  the  Pittsburgh  Commonu>eaUh,  beginning 
m  January,  1807,  the  first  clear  chaUenge  to  the 
Empire  State  to  connect  the  Hudson  and  Lake 
Ene  by  a  canal.    Thus  the  two  nert  steps  in  the 
history  of  inland  commeice  in  America  were  ready 
to  be  taken. 


CHAPTER  Vm 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  THE  ALLEGHANIBB 

The  two  great  thoroughfares  of  American  com- 
merce in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
were  the  Cumberland  Road  and  the  Erie  Canal. 
The  first  generation  of  the  new  century  witnessed 
the  great  burst  of  population  into  the  West  which 
at  once  gave  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan, 
and  Wisconsin  a  place  of  national  importance 
which  they  have  never  relinquished.     So  far  as 
pathways  of  commerce  contributed  to  the  crea- 
tion of  this  veritable  new  republic  in  the  Middle 
West,  the  Cumberland  Road  and  the  Erie  Canal, 
coeperating  respectively   with  Ohio  River  and 
Lake  Erie  steamboats,  were  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance.   The  national  spirit,  said  to  have  arisen 
from  the  second  war  with  England,  had  its  clear- 
est manifestation   in  the  throwing  of   a  great 
macadamized    roadwuy   across    the    Alleghanies 
to  the  Ohio  River  and  the  digging  of  the  Erie 
iia 


\ 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  ALLEGHANIES  117 

Canal  through  the  iwamps  and  wildernesses  of 
New  York. 

Both  of  these  pathways  were  essentially  the 
fpiition  of  the  doctrine  to  which  Washington  gave 
wide  circulaUon  in  his  letter  to  Harrison  in  1784, 
wherein  he  pictured  the  vision  of  a  vast  Republic 
united  by  commercial  chains.    Both  were  essen- 
tially Western   enterprises.     The  highway   was 
built  to  fulfil  the  promise  which  the  Government 
had  made  in  1802  to  use  a  portion  of  the  money 
accruing  from  the  sale  of  public  lands  in  Ohio  in 
order  to  connect  that  young  State  with  Atlantic 
waters.   It  was  proposed  to  build  the  canal,  accord- 
ing to  one  early  plan,  with  funds  to  be  obtained 
by  the  sale  of  land  in  Michigan.    So  firmly  did 
the  promoters  believe  in  the  national  importance 
of  this  project  that  subscriptions,   according  to 
another  plan,  were  to  be  solicited  as  far  afield  as 
Vermont  in  the  North  and  Kentucky  in  the  South- 
west.   All  that  Washington  had  hoped  for,  and  all 
that  Aaron  Burr  is  supposed  to  have  been  hopeless 
of.  were  epitomized  in  these  great  works  of  inter- 
nal improvement.     They  bespoke  coSperation  of 
the  highest  existing  types  of  loyalty,  optimism, 
financial  skill,  and  engineering  ability. 
Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  contraste  between 


il8  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
these  undertakings  were  great.    The  two  enter- 
prises, one  the  work  of  the  nation  and  the  other 
that  of  a  single  Sute,  were  practically  contempo- 
raneous and  were  therefore  constantly  inviting 
comparison.    The  Cumberland  Road  was,  for  iU 
day.  a  gigantic  government  undertaking  involving 
problems  of  finance,  civil  engineering,  eminent 
domain,  state  rights,  local  favoritism,  and  political 
machination.    lu  purpose  was  noble  and  its  suc- 
cessful construction  a  credit  to  the  nation;  but  the 
paternalism  to  which  it  gave  rise  and  the  conflicts 
which  it  precipitated  in  Congress  over  questions 
of  constitutionality  were  remembered  soberly  for  a 
century.     The  Erie  Canal,  after  iU  projectors  had 
failed  to  obtain  national  aid,  became  the  undertak- 
ing of  one  commonwealth  conducted,  amid  count- 
less doubts  and  jeers,  to  a  conclusion  unbelievably 
successful.    As  a  result  many  States,  foregoing 
Federal  aid,  attempted  to  duplicate  the  successful 
feat  of  New  York.   In  thisrespect  the  northern  canal 
resembled  the  Lancaster  Turnpike  and  tempted 
scores  of  States  and  corporations  to  expenditures 
which  were  unwise  in  circumstances  less  favorable 
thanthoseofthefruitfulandstrategicEmpireState. 
In  the  conception  of  both  the  roadway  and  the 
canal,  it  should  be  noted,  the  old  idea  of  making 


I 


THE  CONQUEST  OP  THE  ALLEGHAXIES  119 

use  of  navigable  rivew  .till  persisted.     The  act 

foreshadowing  the  Cumberland  Road,  passed  in 

1802.  called  for  "making  public  roads  leading  from 

the  navigable  waters  emptying  into  the  AtlanUc. 

to  the  Oh,o.  to  said  State  Ohio  and  through  the 

«me   :  and  Hawley's  original  plan  was  to  build 

the  Ene  Canal  from  UUca  to  Buffalo  using  the 

Mohawk  from  Utica  to  the  Hudson. 

Historic  Cumberland,  in  Maryland,  was  chosen 
by  Congress  as  the  eastern  terminus  of  the  great 
highway  which  should  bind  Ohio  to  the  Old  Thir- 
teen.     Commissioners  were  appointed  in  1806  to 
choose  the  best  route  by  which  the  great  highway 
«uld  reach  the  Ohio  River  between  SteubenviUe! 
Oh.0  and  the  mouth  of  Grave  Creek;  but  difficul- 
Ues  of  navigation  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Three 
S^ter  Islands  near   Chariestown.   or  Wellsburg. 
West  Virginia.   led   to  the  choice  of  Wheeling 
farther  down,  as  a  temporary  western  terminus 

betl  'Tr''^"^  ^"^  «"  «««"«"*  compromise 
between  the  long  standing  rival  claims  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. Maryland,  and  Virginia  to  the  trade  of  tL 
W«t.  If  Baltimore  and  Alexandria  were  to  be 
better  served  than  Philadelphia,  the  advantage 
was  slight;  and  Pennsylvania  gained  compens^. 
tion.  ere  the  State  gave  the  National  Government 


180  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COliIMERCE 
permission  to  build  the  road  within  its  limits,  by 
dictating  that  it  should  pass  through  Uniontown 
and  Washington.  In  this  way  Pennsylvania  ob- 
tained, without  cost,  unrivaled  advantages  for  a 
portion  of  the  State  which  might  otherwise  have 
been  long  neglected. 

The  building  of  the  road,  however  satisfactoiy 
in  the  main,  was  not  undertaken  without  arousing 
many  sectional  and  personal  hopes  and  prejudices 
and  jealousies,  of  which  the  echoes  still  linger  in 
local  legends  today.  Land-owners,  mine-owners, 
factory-owners,  innkeepers  and  countless  towns- 
men and  villagers  anxiously  watched  the  course  of 
the  road  and  were  bitterly  disappointed  if  the  new 
sixty-four-foot  thoroughfare  did  not  pass  imme- 
diately through  their  property.  On  the  other 
hand,  promoters  of  toll  and  turnpike  companies, 
who  had  promising  schemes  and  long  lists  of  share- 
holders, were  far  from  eager  to  have  their  prop- 
erty taken  for  a  national  road.  No  one  believed 
that,  if  it  proved  successful,  it  would  be  the  only 
work  of  its  kind,  and  everywhere  men  looked  for 
the  construction  of  government  highways  out  of 
the  overflowing  wealth  of  the  treasury  within  the 
next  few  years. 
In  April,  1811.  the  first  contracU  were  let  for 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  ALLEGHANIES  181 
building  the  first  ten  miles  of  the  road  from  its 
eastern  terminus  and  were  completed  in   1818. 
More  contracts  were  let  in  1812,  1813,  and  1815. 
Even  in  those  days  of  war  when  the  drain  on  the 
national  treasury  was  excessive,  over  a  quarter  of 
a  million  dollars  was  appropriated  for  the  construc- 
tion of  the  road.    Onward  it  crawled,  through  the 
beautiful  Cumberland  gateway  of  the  Potomac,  to 
Big  Savage  and  Little  Savage  Mountains,  to  Little 
Pine  Run  (the  first  "Western"  water),  to  Red  Hill 
(later  called  "Shades  of  Death"  because  of  the 
gloomy  forest  growth),  to  high-flung  Negro  Moun- 
tain at  an  elevattf^n  of  2325  feet,  and  thence  on  to 
the  Youghiogheny,  historic  Great  Meadows,  Brad- 
dock's  Grave,  Laurel  Hill,  Uniontown,  and  Browns- 
ville, where  it  crossed  the  Monongahela.    Thence, 
on  almost  a  straight  line,  it  sped  by  way  of  Wash- 
ington to  Wheeling.    Its  average  cost  was  upwards 
of  thirteen  thousand  dollars  a  mile  from  the  Poto- 
mac to  the  Ohio.    The  road  was  used  in  1817,  and 
in  another  year  the  mail  coaches  of  the  United 
States  were  running  from  Washington  to  Wheeling, 
West  Virginia.    Within  five  years  one  of  the  five 
commission  houses  doing  business  at  Wheeling  is 
said  to  have  handled  over  a  thousand  wagons 
carrying  freight  of  nearly  two  tons  each. 


m  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

The  Cumberland  Road  at  once  leaped  into  a 
posiUon  of  leadership,  both  in  volume  of  commerce 
and  in  popularity,  and  held  its  own  for  two  famous 
decades.     The  pulse  of  the  nation  beat  to  the 
•teady  throb  of  trade  along  its  highway.    Mary- 
land at  once  stretched  out  her  eager  arms,  along 
stone  roads,  through  Frederick  and  Hagerstown 
to  Cumberland,  and  thus  formed  a  single  route 
from  the  Ohio  to  Baltimore.     Great  stagecoach 
and  freight  lines  were  soon  established,  each  pat- 
ronizing its  own  stage  house  or  wagon  stand  in  the 
thriving  towns  along  the  road.    The  primitive  box 
stage  gave  way  to^  the  oval  or  football  type  with 
curved  top  and  bottom,  and  this  was  displaced  in 
turn  by  the  more  practical  Concord  coach  of  na- 
tional fame.    The  names  of  the  important  stage- 
coach companies   were   quite  as  well  known,   a 
century  ago,  as  those  of  our  great  railways  today. 
Chief  among  them  were  the  National,  Good  Intent, 
June  Bug,  and  Pioneer  lines.    The  coaches,  drawn 
by  four  and  sometimes  six  horses,  were  usually 
painted  in  brilliant  colors  and  were  named  after 
eminent  statesmen.     The  drivers  of  these  gay 
charioU  were  characters  quite  as  famous  locally 
aa  the  personages  whose  names  were  borne  by  the 
coaches.     Westover  and  his  record  of  forty-five 


THE  CONQUEST  OP  THE  ALLEGHANIES  iss 
minutes  for  the  twenty  miles  between  Uniontown 
and  Brownsville,  and  "Red"  Bunting,  with  his 
drive  of  a  hundred  and  thirty-one  miles  in  twelve 
hours  with  the  declaration  of  war  against  Mexico, 
will  be  long  famous  on  the  curving  stretches  of  the' 
Cumberland  Hoad. 

Although  the  freight  and  express  traffic  of  those 
days  lacked  the  picturesqueness  of  the  passenger 
coaches,  nothing  illustrates  so  conclusively  what 
the  great  road  meant  to  an  awakening  West  as  the 
long  lines  of  heavy  Conestogas  and  rattling  express 
wagons  which  raced  at  "unprecedented"  speed 
across  hill  and  vale.  Searight,  the  local  historian 
of  the  road,  describes  these  large,  broad-wheeled 
wagons  covered  with  white  canvas  as 

visible  all  the  day  long,  at  eveiy  point,  making  the 
highway  look  more  hke  a  leading  avenue  of  a  great 
city  than  a  road  through  rural  districU.  .  I  Lye 

staid  over  night  with  WiUiam  Cheets  on  Nigger  [Negro] 
Mountain  when  there  were  about  thirtTsix-hSJ^ 
teams  m  the  wagon  yard,  a  hundred  Kentucky  mules 
m  an  adjoining  lot.  a  thousand  hogs  in  their  enclosures 
and  as  many  fat  cattle  in  adjoining  fields.    The  music 

f^",t  ^  ^^\  l^,  °"'°'"'  °'  '"'«'  '"""K  com  on  a 
frosty  night  I  shall  never  forget.  After  supper  and 
attention  to  the  teams,  the  wagoners  would  gither  in 

f^^i  K^t""  ""'  "f  *°  *°  *•"=  ■""''■=  °"  the  violin 
furmshed   by  one  of  their  fellows,  have  a   Virginia 


184  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

hoe-down,  sing  songs,  teU  anecdotes,  and  hear  the  experi- 
ences  of  drivers  and  drovers  from  all  pomts  of  the 
road,  and,  when  it  was  all  over,  unroD  their  beds,  lay 
them  down  on  the  floor  before  the  bar-room  fire  side 
by  side,  and  sleep  with  their  feet  near  the  blaze  h 
soundly  as  under  the  parental  roof. 


Meanwhile  New  York,  the  other  great  rival  for 
Western  trade,  was  intent  on  its  own  darling  prtq". 
ect,  the  Erie  Canal.    In  1808,  three  years  before  the 
buUding  of  the  Cumberland  Road,  Joshua  Fonnan 
offered  a  bill  in  favor  of  the  canal  in  the  Legisla- 
ture of  New  York.    In  plain  but  dignified  language 
this  documeut  stated  that  New  York  possessed 
"the  best  route  of  communication  between  the 
Atlantic  and  western  waters,"  and  that  it  held 
"the  first  commercial  rank  in  the  United  States." 
The  bill  also  noted  that,  while  "several  of  our  sister 
States"  were  seeking  to  secure  "the  trade  of  that 
wide  extended  country,"  their  natural  advantages 
were  "vastly  inferior."    Six  hundred  dollars  was 
the  amount  appropriated  for  a  brief  survey,  and 
Congress  was  asked  to  vote  aid  for  the  construc- 
tion of  the  "Buffalo-Utica  Canal."    The  matter 
was  widely  talked  about  but  action  was  delayed. 
Doubt  as  to  the  best  route  to  be  pursued  caused 
some  discussion.    If  the  western  terminus  were  to 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  ALLEGHANIES  128 
be  located  on  Lake  Ontario  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Oswego,  as  some  advocated,  would  produce  not 
make  its  way  to  Montreal  instead  of  to  New  York? 
In  1810  a  new  committee  was  appointed  and, 
though  their  report  favored  the  paralleling  of  the 
course  of  the  Mohawk  and  Oswego  rivers,  their 
engineer,  James  Geddes,  gave  strength  to  the 
party  which  believed  a  direct  canal  would  best  serve 
the  interests  of  the  SUte.  It  is  worth  noting 
that  Livingston  and  Fulton  were  added  to  the 
committee  in  1811. 

The  hopes  of  outside  aid  'rom  Congress  and  ad- 
jacent States  met  with  disappointment.  In  vain 
did  the  advocates  of  the  canal  in  1812  plead  that 
its  construction  would  promote  "a  free  and  general 
intercourse  between  different  parts  of  the  United 
States,  tend  to  the  aggrandizement  and  prosperity 
of  the  country,  and  consolidate  and  strengthen 
the  Union."  The  plan  to  have  the  Government 
subsidize  the  canal  by  vesting  in  the  Stete  of  New 
York  four  million  acres  of  Michigan  land  brought 
out  a  protest  from  the  West  which  is  notable  not  so 
much  because  it  records  the  opposition  of  this  sec- 
tion as  because  it  illustrates  the  shortsightedness 
of  most  of  the  arguments  raised  against  the  New 
York  enterprise.    The  purpose  of  the  canal,  the 


I!    — 


188  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

detractors  asserted,  was  to  build  up  New  York 
City  to  the  detriment  of  Montreal,  and  the  naviga- 
tion of  Lake  Ontario,  whose  beauty  they  touchingly 
described,  was  to  be  abandoned  for  a  "narrow 
^ding   obstructed   canal  ...  for   an   expensi 
which  arithmetic  dares  not  approach."    It  was.  in 
theu-  minds,  unquestionably  a  selfish  object,  and 
they  believed  that  "both  correct  science,  and  the 
dictates  of  patriotism  and  philanthropy  [should] 
lead  to  the  adoption  of  more  liberal  principles  "   It 
was  a  shortsighted  object,   "predicated  on  the 
eternal  adhesion  of  the  Canadas  to  England  "    It 
would  never  give  satisfaction  since  trade  would 
always  ignore  artificial  and  seek  natural  routes. 
The  attempting  of  such  comparatively  useless  proj- 
ects would  discourage  worthy  schemes,  relax  the 
bonds  of  Union,  and  depress  the  national  character 
But  though  these  Westerners  thus  misjudged  the 
possibilities  of  the  Erie  Canal,  we  must  doff  oup 
hats  to  them  for  their  foresight  in  suggesting  that, 
instead  of  aiding  the  Erie  Canal,  the  nation  ought 
to  build  canals  at  Niagara  Palls  and  Pamima' 

The  War  of  1812  suspended  all  talk  of  the  canal 
but  the  subject  was  again  brought  up  by  JudgJ 
Piatt  m  the  autumn  of  1816.  With  alacrity  strong 
men  came  to  the  aid  of  the  measure.    DeWitt 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  ALLEGHANIES  187 
Clinton's  Memorial  of  1816  addressed  to  the  State 
Legislature  may  weU  rank  with  Washington's 
letter  to  Harrison  in  the  documentary  history  of 
American  commercial  development.  It  sums  up 
the  geographical  position  of  New  York  with  re- 
ference to  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Atlantic,  her 
relationship  to  the  West  and  to  Canada,  the  feasi- 
bility of  the  proposed  route  from  an  engineering 
standpoint,  the  timeliness  of  the  moment  for  such 
a  work  of  improvement,  the  value  that  the  canal 
would  give  to  the  state  lands  of  the  interior,  and 
the  trade  that  it  would  bring  to  the  towns  along 
its  pathway. 

The  Erie  Canal  was  bom  in  the  Act  of  April  14, 
1817,  but  the  decision  of  the  Council  of  Revision, 
which  held  the  power  of  veto,  was  in  doubt.  An 
anecdote  related  by  Judge  Piatt  tends  to  prove 
that  fear  of  another  war  with  England  was  the 
straw  that  broke  the  camel's  back  of  opposition. 
Acting-Governor  Taylor,  Chief  Justice  Thomp- 
son, Chancellor  Kent,  Judge  Yates,  and  Judge 
Piatt  composed  the  Council.  The  two  first  named 
were  open  opponents  of  the  measure;  Kent,  Yates, 
and  Piatt  were  warm  advocates  of  the  project, 
but  one  of  them  doubted  if  the  time  was  ripe  to 
undertake  it. 


188  TBE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMEECE 

Taylor  oppoaed  the  canal  on  the  ground  that 
the  Ute  treaty  with  England  wa,  a  mere  truce  and 
that  the  resources  of  the  State  should  be  husbande*. 
ag&inst  renewed  war. 

"Do  you  think  so.  Sir?"  Chancellor  Kent  is  said 
to  have  asked  the  Governor. 

"Yes.  Sir."  was  the  reported  reply.  "England 
wiU  never  foigive  us  for  our  victories,  and.  my 
word  for  it.  we  shall  have  another  war  with  h«r 
withm  two  years." 

The  ChanceUor  rose  to  his  feet  with  determina- 
tion and  sealed  the  fate  of  the  great  ente^Jrise  in  a 
word. 

"If  we  must  have  war."  he  exclaimed,  "I 
Z  m7'  "'  «>«  canal  and  I  cast  my  vote  for 

^  July  4. 1817.  work  was  formally  inaugwuted 
at  Rome  with  simple  ceremonies.  Thus  the  year 
1817  was  marked  by  three  great  undertakings:  the 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  River  upstream  and 
down  by  steamboats,  the  opening  of  the  national 
road  across  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  and  the  be- 
gmnmg  of  the  Erie  Canal.  No  single  year  in  the 
early  history  of  the  United  States  witnessed  three 
such  miportant  events  in  Uie  material  progress  of 
the  country. 


.1 ,,».. 


THE  CONQUKST  OF  THE  AIXEGHANIES  !» 
What  days  the  ancient  "Long  House  of  the  Ii». 
quois"  now  saw!    The  engineers  of  the  Cumber- 
land  Road,  now  nearing  the  Ohio  River,  had  en- 
joyed   the  advantage  of  many  precedents  and 
eramples;  but  the   Commissioners  of  the  Erie 
Canal  had  been  able  to  study  only  such  crude 
eramples  of  canal-building  as  America  then  af- 
forded.   Never  on  any  continent  had  such  an  in- 
accessible region  been  pierced  by  such  a  highway. 
The  total  length  of  the  whole  network  of  canals  in 
Great  Britain  did  not  equal  that  of  the  waterway 
wUch  the  New  Yorkers  now  undertook  to  build. 
The  lack  of  roads,  materials,  veWcles,  methods  of 
drilling  and  efficient  business  systems  was  over- 
come by  sheer  patience  and  perseverance  in  ex- 
periment.   The  frozen  winter  roads  saved  the  day 
by  making  it  possible  to  accumulate  a  proper 
supply  of  provisions  and  materials.    As  tools  of 
construction,  the  plough  and  scraper  with  their 
greater  capacity  for  work  soon  supplanted  the 
shovel  and  the  wheelbarrow.  wUch  had  been  the 
chief  implements  for  such  construction  in  Europe. 
Strange  new  machinery  bom  of  Mother  Necessity 
was  now  heard  groaning  in  the  dark  swamps  of 
New  York.    These  giants,  worked  by  means  of  a 
cable,  wheel,  and  endless  screw,  were  made  to  hoist 


I»  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

brand.  A  new  plough  was  fashioned  with  which  . 
yo^eofoxencouldcatroots  two  inches  in  thickness 
wen  beneath  the  surface  of  the  ground 

Handicaps  of  various  sorts  wo.*  the  patience  of 
comm.ss.oners.  engineers,  and  contractors.  Lack 

of  snow  durmg  one  winter  all  but  stopped  the  work 
by  cuttiug  off  the  source  of  supphJ'Sont  ^' 

ments.  such  as  fever  and  ague,  reaped  great  har- 
vests, mcapactated  more  than  a  thousand  work- 
men at  one  tin.e  and  for  a  brief  while  stopp^ 
work  completely.  "wppea 

For  the  most  part,  however,  work  was  carried  on 
«nultax.eously  on  all  the  three  great  links  or  s  " 
tionsmto  which  the  enterprise  was  divided.  lS 
contractors  were  given  preference  by  the  cl 
m.ss.oners.  and  three-fourths  of  the  work  was  die 
bynahvesoftheState.  Forward  up  the  Mohawk 
by  Schenectady  and  Utica  to  Rome,  thence  bend 
J  southward  to  Syracuse,  and  from  there  by  way 

on  ^eT:-     "^r  *='°"  *°  "•«  ""--'t  'evel 
2  *;'f«  ''^«'   ^'^^^   I^e   Ontario 

streams  and  the  Valley  of  the  Tonawanda.  thele 


THE  CONQUEST  OP  THE  AIXEGHANIES  isi 
ran  to  Lockport.  where  a  series  of  locks  placed  the 
ranal  on  the  Lake  Erie  level.  365  miles  from  and 
««4  feet  above  Albany.    By  June.  1823.  the  canal 
was  completed  from  Rochester  to  Schenectady  in 
October  boaU  passed  into  the  tidewaters  of  the 
Hudson  at  Albany;  and  in  the  autumn  of  1825  the 
canal  was  formally  opened  by  the  passage  of  a 
taumphant  fleet  from  Lake  Erie  to  New  York  Bay 
Here  two  kegs  of  lake  water  were  emptied  into  the 
AUantic.  while  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  New 
York  spoke  these  words: 

T^«,Iemmty  at  this  place,  on  the  6rst  arrival  of 
ves^s  from  Lake  Erie,  is  intended  to  indicate  and 
commemorate  the  navigable  communication,  which 

S^,^H°,n7  "^'i  •*""*"  °"  Mediterranean 
Seas  and  the  AUantic  Ocean,  in  about  eight  years  to 
tt.  extent  of  more  than  four  hundred  andtlCt;  fivl 
mJes  by  the  wisdom,  public  spirit,  and  energy  of  the 
peopk  of  the  State  of  New  York;  and  may  The  G^ 
of  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth  smUe  most  propitiously 

inJt.  TJt  T'*  '"'"'"  "  subservient  to  the  best 
mterests  of  the  human  race. 

Throughout  these  last  seven  years,  the  West 
was  subconsciously  getting  ready  to  meet  the  East 
halfway  by  improving  and  extending  her  steam- 
boat operations.  Steamboats  were  first  run  on  the 
Great  Lakes  by  enterprising  Buffalo  citizens  who. 


c  ^ 


;l 


ir 


W«  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMEBCE 
in  1818.  .mired  rights  from  the  Fulton-Liviniatoi 
monopoly  to  build  the  Walk-in^-Waler.  the  En 
of  the  great  fleet  of  dup.  that  now  whiten  th. 
inland  ««  of  the  United  Sute..  Regular  line,  rt 
"teamboat.  were  now  formed  on  the  Ohio  to  con- 
nect  wrth  the  Cumberland  Road  at  Wheeling 
^ih^  the  rteamboat  monopoly  th«aten^ 
rtrfk  the  natural  development  of  transportation  on 
Wertem  nvers. 

The  completion  of  the  Erie  Canal  -  coupied 
with  the  new  appropriation  by  Congress  for  ex- 
tendmg  the  Cumberland  Road  from  the  Ohio 
River  to  Missouri  and  the  begimung  of  the  Pemi- 
•ylvama  and  the  Che«ipeake  and  Ohio  canals.  «s 
veal  the  importance  of  these  concluding  days  of 
the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  in 
the  annals  of  American  transportation.    Never 
ance  that  time  have  men  doubted  the  abihty  of 
^ericans  to  accomplish  the  physical  domination 
of  theu- continent.    With  the  conquest  of  the  Alle- 
ghames  and  of  the  forests  and  swamps  of  the  "  Long 
House"  by  pick  and  plough  and  scraper.  «,d  the 
mwtery  of  the  currents  of  the  Mississippi  by  the 
paddle  wheel,  the  vast  plains   beyond   seemed 
smaUer  and  the  Rockies  less  formidable.   Men  now 
looked  forward  confidenUy.  with  an  optimist  of 


raECONQDESrOFTBKALLEGHAMESm 

I  theK  days,  to  the  time  "when  circulation  «.d 

«omtK,n  between  the  AtlanUc  «.d  Pacific  and 

the  MexKan  Gulf  .hall  be  a.  free  and  perfect  a« 

I  they  are  at  this  moment  in  England"  between  he 

I  «trem,t.«i  of  that  country.  The  vision  of  a  naUon 

I  dojelyl^edby well-worn pathsofcommercewa. 

I  daily  becoming  dearer.    What  furth.    westward 

ProgKM  wa.  «»n  to  be  made  remain...  fo  bo  seen. 


i 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  DAWN  OF  THE  IRON  AGE 

Despite  the  superiority  of  the  new  iron  age  that 
quickly  followed  the  widespreading  canal  move- 
ment, there  was  a  generous  spirit  and  a  chivalry 
in  the  "good  old  days"  of  the  stagecoach,  the 
Conestoga,  and  the  lazy  canal  boat,  which  did  not 
to  an  equal  degree  pervade  the  iron  age  of  the  rail- 
road. When  machinery  takes  the  place  of  human 
brawn  and  patience,  there  is  an  indefinable  eclipse 
of  human  interest.  Somehow,  ^o(!i  and  levers  and 
differentials  do  not  have  the  same  appeal  as  fingers 
and  eyes  and  muscles.  The  old  days  of  coach  and 
canal  boat  had  a  picturesqueness  and  a  comrade- 
ship of  their  own.  In  the  turmoil  and  confusion 
and  odd  mixing  of  every  kind  of  humanity  along  the 
lines  of  travel  in  the  days  of  the  hurtling  coach-and- 
six,  a  friendliness,  a  robust  sympathy,  a  ready  inter- 
est in  the  successful  and  the  unfortunate,  a  knowl- 
edge of  how  the  other  half  lives,  and  a  familiarity 

U4 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  mON  AGE  im 
with  men  as  weU  as  with  mere  places,  was  common 
to  aU  who  took  the  road.  Ai  Thackeray  so  vividly 
describes  it: 

The  land  rangyet  with  the  tooting  horns  and  rattling 
^Zf  """"hcoaches;  a  gay  sight  was  the  road  k 
those  d=ysbrfore  steam-engines  arose  and  flung  its 
hosteliy  and  chivaly  over.  To  travel  in  coaches,  to 
S.nl  ~'^'""j">  ""-J  8""ds.  to  be  familiar  with  inns 

«^~  r  J"?  ^^P'^tty  chamber-maid  under  the  chin, 
were  the  dehght  of  men  who  were  young  not  very  long 
ago.  The  road  was  an  institution,  the  rina  was  an 
mstUution.  Men  rallied  around  them;  and^LIwith" 
wifh"  '''?'!  °f«»«»7'»tism  expatiated  on  the  benefits 
w.th  which  they  endowed  the  country,  and  the  evils 
which  would  occur  when  they  should  be  no  more-  - 

fry  /fu"*  "P'"*'  '^"'^y  °f  """"'y  P'"«k.  ruin  of 
the  breed  of  horse,,  and  so  forth  and  so  forth.  To  give 
and  take  a  black  eye  was  not  unusual  nor  derogatoiy  in 
a  gent  eman :  to  drive  a  stage-coach  the  enjoyment,  the 
emulat.on.ofgenerousyouth.  Is  there  any  young  fellow 

ill    f  T  *■  "'"'  ~'P'""'  ^  ^"^  *•>«  Pl""*  of  a 

^r  ^t  T  °f  "'""""y  «  the  countrjr  a  dismal 
dd  drag  with  a  lonely  driver.    Where  are  you.  chariot- 

DS.JtT.  ""*  ^°"'  Pu™"""*  e-'-'M^r.  O  swift 
Defiance?  You  are  passed  by  racers  stronger  and  swifter 

in  ^k""  jL°"'  ""P'  "*  °"''  ""•  '*'«  '"""c  of  your 
horns  has  died  away. 

Behind  this  change  from  the  older  and  more 
picturesque  days  which  is  thus  lamented  there  ky 


it 


186  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
potent  economic  forces  and  a  strong  commercial 
rivalry  between  different  parts  of  the  country. 
The  Atlantic  States  were  all  rivals  of  each  other, 
reaching  out  by  one  bold  stroke  after  another  across 
forest,  mountain,  and  river  to  the  gigantic  and 
fruitful  West.  Step  after  step  the  inevitable  con- 
quest went  on.  Foremost  in  time  nuirched  the 
sturdy  pack-horsemen,  blazmg  the  way  for  the 
heavier  forces  quietly  biding  their  time  in  the  rear 

the  Conestogas,  the  steamboat,  the  canal  boat, 

and,  last  and  greatest  of  them  all,  the  locomotive. 
Through  a  long  preliminary  period  the  principal 
center  of  interest  was  the  Potomac  Valley,  towards 
whose  strategic  head  Virginia  and  Maryland,  by 
river-improvement  and  road-building,  were  direct- 
ing their  commercial  routes  in  amiable  rivaby  for  the 
conquest  of  the  Western  trade.  Suddenly  out  from 
the  southern  region  of  the  Middle  Atlantic  States 
went  the  Cumberland  National  Bomd  to  the  Ohio. 
New  York  instantly,  in  her  zone,  took  up  the  chal- 
lenge and  thrust  her  great  Erie  Canal  across  to  the 
Great  Lakes.  In  rapid  succession,  Pennsylvania  and 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  eager  not  to  be  outdone  in 
winning  the  ftruggle  for  Western  trade,  sent  their 
canals  into  the  AUeghanies  toward  the  Ohio. 
It  soon  developed,  however,  that  Baltimore,  both 


THE  DAWN  OP  THE  ffiON  AGE  w 
powerful  and  ambitious,  was  seriously  handicapped 
In  order  to  retain  her  commanding  position  as  the 
metropolis  of  Western  trade  she  was  compelled  to 
resort  toanewand  untried  method  of  transportation 
which  marks  an  era  in  American  history. 

It  seems  plain  that  the  Southern  rivals  of  New 
York  City -Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Alex- 
andria-had relied  for  a  while  on  the  deterring 
effect  of  a  host  of  critics  who  warned  all  men  that  a 
canal  of  such  proportions  as  the  Erie  was  not  prac- 
facable.  that  no  State  could  bear  the  financial  drain 
which  its  construction  would  involve,  that  theories 
which  had  proved  practical  on  a  small  scale  would 
fail  in  so  large  an  undertaking,  that  the  canal  would 
be  clogged  by  floods  or  frozen  up  for  half  of  each 
year,  and  that  commerce  would  ignore  artificial 
courses  and  cling  to  natural  channels.    But  the 
answer  of  the  Empire  State  to  her  rivals  was 
the  homely  but  triumphant  cry  "Low  Bridge!"  — 
the  warning  to  passengers  on  the  decks  of  canal 
boats  as  they  approached  the  numerous  bridges 
which  spanned  the  route.    When  this  cry  passed 
into  a  byword  it  afforded  posiUve  proof  that  the 
Ene  Canal  traflSc  was  firmly  esUblished.     The 
words  rang  in  the  counting-houses  of  Philadel- 
phia and  out  and  along  the  Lancaster  and  the 


•*E-3»^^e?; 


Y    '\ 


188  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

Philadelphia-Pittsburgh  turnpikes  -  "Ix.wBrid«e! 
Low  Bridge!"    Pennsylvania  had  granted,  it  has 
been  pointed  out,  that  her  Southern  neighbors 
might  have  their  share  of  the  Ohio  Valley  trade 
but  maintained  that  the  splendid  commerce  ofthe 
Great  Lakes  was  her  own  peculiar  heritage.    Moi 
of  Baltimore  who  had  domimited  the  energetic 
policy  of  stone-road  building  in  their  State  heard 
this  alarming  challenge  from  the  North.   Tie  echo 
ran  "Low  Bridge!"  in  the  poor  decaying  locks  of 
the  Potomac  Company  where,  according  to  the  com- 
mittee once  appointed  to  examine  that  enterprise, 
flood-tides  "gave  the  only  navigation  that  was  en- 
joyed."   Were  their  efforts  to  keep  the  Chesapeake 
metropolis  in  the  lead  to  be  set  at  naught? 

There  could  be  but  one  answer  to  the  challenge, 
and  that  was  to  rival  canal  with  canal.    These 
more  southerly  States,  confronted  by  the  towering 
ranges  of  the  AUeghanies  to  the  westward,  showrf 
a  courage  which  was  superb,  although,  as  tune 
proved  in  the  case  of  Maryland,  they  might  weU 
have  taken  more  counsel  of  their  fears.    Pennsyl- 
vania acted  swiftly.    Though  its  western  water- 
way-the  roaring  Juniata,   which  entered  the 
Susquehanna  near  Harrisburg  -  had  a  drop  from 
head  to  mouth  greater  than  that  of  the  entire  New 


'I 


THE  DAWN  C9  THE  IRON  AGE        130 

York  canal,  and,  though  the  moiutains  of  the 
Altoona  region  loomed  straight  up  nearly  three 
thousand  feet,  Pennsylvania  overcame  the  low- 
lands by  main  strength  and  the  mountain  peaks  by 
strategy  and  was  sending  canal  boats  from  Phila- 
delphia to  Pittsburgh  within  nine  years  of  the 
completion  of  the  Erie  Canal. 

The  eastern  division  of  the  Pennsylvania  Canal, 
known  as  the  Union  Canal,  from  Reading  on  the 
Schuylkill  to  Middletown  on  the  Susquehanna, 
was  completed  in  1827.  The  Juniata  section  was 
then  driven  on  up  to  HoHidaysburg.  Beyond  the 
mountain  barrier,  the  Conemaugh,  the  Kiskimini- 
tas,  and  the  Allegheny  were  followed  to  Pittsburgh. 
But  the  greatest  feat  in  the  whole  enterprise  was 
the  conquest  of  the  mountain  section,  from  Holli- 
daysburg  to  Johnstown.  This  was  accomplished 
by  the  building  of  five  inclined  planes  on  each 
slope,  each  plane  averaging  about  2300  feet  in 
length  and  200  feet  in  height.  Up  or  down  these 
slopes  and  along  the  intermediate  level  sections 
cars  and  giant  cradles  (built  to  be  lowered  inlo 
locks  where  they  could  take  an  entire  canal  boat 
as  a  load)  were  to  be  hauled  or  lowered  by  horse- 
power, and  later,  by  steam.  After  the  plans  had 
been  drawn  up  by  Sylvester  Wefch  and  Moncure 


f  ' 


f  : 


140  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

Robinaoii,  the  Pennsylvania  LegisUture  authorized 
the  work  in  1881,  and  traffic  over  this  *«»ial  route 
was  begup  in  March.  1834.  In  autunm  of  that 
year,  the  stanch  boat  Hit  or  Mua.  from  the  Lacka- 
wanna country,  owned  by  Jesse  Crisman  and  cap- 
tained by  Major  WiUiama.  made  the  journey 
across  the  whole  length  of  the  canal.  It  rested  for 
a  night  on  Ihe  AUeghany  summit  "like  Noah's 
Ark  on  Ararat,"  wrote  Sherman  Day,  "descended 
the  next  morning  into  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  sailed  for  St.  Louis." 

Well  did  Robert  Stephenson,  the  famous  Eng- 
lish engineer,  say  that,  in  boldness  of  design  and 
difficulty  of  execution,  this  Pennsylvania  scheme 
of  mastering  the  AUeghanies  could  be  compared 
with  no  modem  triumph  short  of  the  feata  per- 
formed at  the  Simplon  Pass  and  Mont  Cenis. 
Before  long  this  line  of  communication  became  a 
very  popular  thoroughfare;  even  Charles  Dickens 
"heartily  enjoyed"  it  — in  retrospect  —  and  left 
interesting  impressions  of  hU  journey  over  it: 
Even  the  running  up.  bare-necked,  at  five  o'clock  in 
the  morning  from  the  tainted  cabin  to  the  dirty  deck; 
scooping  up  the  icy  water,  plunging  one's  head  mto  it. 
and  drawing  it  out.  all  fresh  and  glowing  with  the 
cold;  was  a  good  thing.   The  fast,  brisk  walk  upon  the 
towing-path,  between  that  time  and  breakfast,  when 


THE  DAWN  OP  THE  mON  AGE  in 
eveiy  vein  and  artery  wemed  to  tingle  with  health; 
the  exquisite  beauty  of  the  opening  day,  when  light 
came  gleaming  off  from  eveiything;  the  lazy  motion 
of  the  boat,  when  one  lay  idly  on  the  deck,  looking 
timuf^,  rather  than  at,  the  deep  blue  sky;  the  gUding 
on,  at  night,  so  noiselessly,  past  frowning  hills,  sullen 
with  dark  tree*,  and  sometimes  angry  in  one  red  burn- 
ing spot  high  up,  where  unseen  men  lay  crouching 
round  a  fire;  the  shining  out  of  the  bright  stan,  un- 
dUturbed  by  noise  of  wheels  or  steam,  or  any  other 
sound  than  the  liquid  rippling  of  the  water  as  the  boat 
went  on;  all  these  were  pure  delights.' 

Dickens  also  thus  graphically  depicfa  the  unique 
experience  of  being  carried  over  the  mountain 
peaks  on  the  aerial  railway: 

There  are  ten  inclined  planes;  five  ascending  and  five 
descending;  the  carriages  are  dragged  up  the  former, 
and  let  slowly  down  the  latter,  by  me?ns  of  stationary 
engines;  the  comparatively  level  spaces  between  be- 
ing traversed,  sometimes  by  horse,  and  sometimes  by 
engine  power,  as  the  case  demands.  Occasionally  the 
rails  are  laid  upon  the  extreme  verge  of  a  giddy  preci- 
pice; and  looking  from  the  carriage  window,  the 
traveler  gazes  sheer  down,  without  a  stone  or  scrap 
of  fence  between,  into  the  mountain  depths  below. 
The  journey  is  vety  carefully  made,  however;  only 
two  carriages  traveUng  together;  and  while  proper  pre- 
cautions are  taken,  is  not  to  be  dreaded  for  iU  dangers. 

It  was  veiy  pretty  traveling  thus,  at  a  rapid  pace 

•itmram  Nolu  (G«UiiU  Edition),  pp.  180-81. 


ifl 


f 


us  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

along  the  heighu  of  the  mountain  in  a  keen  wind,  to 
look  down  into  a  valley  full  of  light  and  sottneas; 
catching  glimpses,  through  the  tree-tops,  of  scattered 
taibins;  children  running  to  the  doors;  dogs  bursting 
out  to  bark,  whom  we  could  see  without  hearing; 
terrified  pigs  scampering  homewards;  families  sitting 
out  in  their  rude  gardens;  cows  gazing  upward  with  a 
stupid  indifference;  men  in  their  shirt-sleeves  looking 
<m  at  their  unfinished  houses,  planning  out  tomorrow's 
work;  and  we  -iding  onward,  high  above  them,  like  a 
whirl-wind.  ^  .r^^s  amusing,  too,  when  we  had  dined, 
and  rattled  d.  a  a  steep  pass,  having  no  other  motive 
power  tha.  the  weight  of  the  carriages  themselves, 
to  see  Que  engine  released,  long  after  us,  come  buzzing 
down  alone,  like  a  great  insect,  iU  back  of  green  and 
gold  so  rfuning  in  the  sun,  that  if  it  had  spread  a  pair 
of  wings  and  soared  away,  no  one  would  have  had 
occasion,  as  I  fancied,  for  the  least  surprise.  But  it 
stopped  short  of  us  is  a  very  basiness-like  manner 
when  we  reached  the  canal;  and.  before  we  left  the 
wharf,  went  panting  up  this  hiU  again,  with  the  passen- 
gers who  had  waited  our  arrival  for  the  means  of 
traversing  the  road  by  which  we  had  come.' 

This  Pennsylvania  route  was  likewise  famous  be- 
cause it  included  the  first  tunnel  in  America;  but 
with  the  advance  of  years,  tunnel,  planes,  and 
canal  were  supplanted  by  what  was  to  become  in 
time  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  the  pride  of  the 
State  and  one  of  the  great  highways  of  the  nation. 

'Of.cit. 


THK  DAWN  OP  THE  IRON  AGE       14S 
In  the  year  before  Pennsylvania  investigated  her 
western  water  route,  a  joint  bill  was  introduced 
into  the  legislatures  of  the  Potomac  Valley  States 
proposing  a  Potomac  Canal  Company  which  should 
construct  a  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal  at  the 
«pense  of  Maryland.  Virginia,  and  the  District 
of  Columbia.    The  plan  was  of  vital  moment  to 
Alexandria  and  Georgetown  on  the  Potozaac  but 
unless  a  lateral  canal  could  be  built  to  Baltimore 
that  city  -  which  paid  a  third  of  Maryland's  taxes' 
-would  be  .  died  on  to  supply  a  great  sum  to 
b«iefit  only  her  chief  rivals.    The  bitter  struggle 
which  now  developed  is  one  of  the  most  significant 
m  commercial  history  because  of  its  sequel 

The  conditions  underlying  this  rivahy  must  not 
be  lost  sight  of.     Baltimore  had  done  more  than 
^y  other  Eastern  city  to  ally  herself  with  the 
West  and  to  obtain  its  trade.   She  had  instinctive- 
ly responded  to  every  move  made  by  her  rivals 
u.  the  great  game.    If  Pemwylvania  promoted  a 
Lancaster  Turnpike,  Baltimore  threw  out  her  su- 
perb Baltimore-Reisterstown  boulevard,  though  her 
northern  road  to  Philadelphia  remained  the  slough 
that  Brissot  and  Baily  had  found  it.    If  New  York 
projected  an  Erie  Canal,  Baltimore  successfully 
cl.«np«ned  the  building  of  a  Cumberland  Road 


144  TBE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
by  a  govemmental  godmother.  So  thoroughly  and 
quickly,  indeed,  did  she  link  her  system  of  stone 
roads  to  that  great  artery,  that  even  today  many 
well-informed  writers  seem  to  be  under  the  im- 
pression that  the  Cumberland  Road  ran  from  the 
Ohio  to  Washington  and  Baltimore.  Now,  with 
canals  building  to  the  north  of  her  and  canals  to 
the  south  of  her,  what  of  her  prestige  and  future? 

For  the  moment  Baltimore  compromised  by 
agreeing  to  a  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal  which, 
by  a  lateral  branch,  should  still  lead  to  her  market 
square.    Her  scheme  embraced  a  vision  of  con- 
quest regal  in  iU  sweep,  beyond  that  of  any  rival, 
and  comprehending  two  ideas  worthy  of  the  most 
farseeing  strategist  and  the  most  astute  politician. 
It  called  not  only  for  the  building  of  a  transmon- 
tane  canal  to  the  Ohio  but  also  for  a  connecting 
canal  from  the  Ohio  to  the  Great  Lakes.    Not  only 
would  the  trade  of  the  Northwest  be  secured  by 
this  means  —  for  this  southerly  route  would  not 
be  affected  by  winter  frosts  as  would  those  of 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York  —  but  the  good  god- 
mother at  Washington  would  be  almost  certain  to 
champion  it  and  help  to  build  it  since  the  proposed 
route  was  so  thoroughly  interstate  in  character. 
With  the  baulking  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  Western 


THE  DAWN  OP  THE  ffiON  AGE       im 

Pemwylvania,  Ohio,  ud  probably  geveral  Sutet 
bordering  the  Inland  Lakes,  government  aid  in 
the  undertaking  seemed  feasible  and  proper 

TheoreUcally  the  daring  scheme  captured  the 
•dmiration  of  aU  who  were  to  be  benefited  by  it 
At  a  great  banquet  at  Washington.  Ute  in  18SS 
the  project  was  launched.    Adams.  Clay,  and  Cal- 
houn took  the  opportunity  to  ally  themselves  with 
It  by  robustly  declaring  themselves  in  favor  of 
widespread  internal  improvements.   Even  the  god- 
mother  smiled  upon  it  for.  f oUowing  Monroe's  rec 
ommendation.  Congress  without  hesiUUon  voted 
thirty  thousand  dollars  for  the  preliminary  sur- 
vey from  Washington  to  Pittsburgh.    Quickly  the 
Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal  Company  and  the  con- 
necting Maryland  Canal  Company  were  formed, 
aad  steps  were  taken  to  have  Ohio  promote  an 
Ohio  and  Lake  Erie  Company. 

As  high  as  were  the  hopes  awakened  by  this 
movement,  just  so  deep  was  the  dejection  and 
chagrm  into  which  its  advocates  were  thrown  upon 
receivmg  the  report  of  the  engineers  who  made  the 
prelimmary  sm-vey.  The  estimated  cost  ran  to- 
wards a  quarter  of  a  billion,  four  times  the  capital 
stock  of  the  company;  and  there  were  not  lacking 
those  who  pointed  out  that  the  Erie  Canal  had  cost 


MKXOCOn   atSOlUTION   TBI  CHADT 

(ANSI  ond  ISO  7EST  CHA«T  No.  2| 


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(^6)  288-5989  -  Foh 


146  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
more  than  double  the  original  appropriation  made 

for  it. 

The  situation  was  aggravated  for  Baltimore  by 
the  fact  that  Maryland  and  Virginia  were  willing 
to  take  half  a  loaf  if  they  could  not  get  a  whole 
one:  in  other  words,  they  were  willing  to  build  the 
canal  up  the  Potomac  to  Cumberland  and  stop 
there.    Baltimore,  even  if  linked  to  this  partial 
scheme,  would  lose  her  water  connection  with  the 
West,  the  one  prized  asset  which  the  project  had 
held  out,  and  her  Potomac  Valley  rivals  would,  on 
this  contracted  plan,  be  in  a  particularly  advan- 
tageous position  to  surpass  her.    But  the  last  blow 
was  yet  to  come.    Engineers  reported  that  a  lat- 
eral canal  connecting  the  Potomac  and  Chesa- 
peake Bay  was  not  feasible.    It  was  consequently 
of  little  moment  whether  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio 
Canal  could  be  built  across  the  Alleghanies  or  not, 
for,  even  if  it  could  have  been  carried  through  the 
Great  Plains  or  to  the  Pacific,  Baltimore  was,  for 
topographical  reasons,  out  of  the  running. 

The  men  of  Baltimore  now  gave  one  of  the  most 
striking  illustrations  of  spirit  and  pluck  ever  ex- 
hibited by  the  people  of  any  city.  They  refused 
to  accept  defeat.  If  engineering  science  held  a 
means  of  overcoming  the  natural  disadvantages  of 


THE  DAWN  OP  THE  mON  AGE       147 

their  position,  they  were  determined  to  adopt  that 
means,  come  what  would  of  hardship,  difficulty 
and  expenditure.  If  roads  and  canals  would  not 
serve  the  city  on  the  Chesapeake,  what  of  the  rail- 
road  on  which  so  many  experiments  were  being 
made  in  England? 

The  idea  of  controlling  the  trade  of  the  West 
by  raih-oads  was  not  new.    As  early  as  February 
1825,  certain  astute  Pennsylvanians  had  advocated 
buildmg  a  railroad  to  Pittsburgh  instead  of  a  canal, 
and  m  a  memorial  to  the  Legislature  they  had  set 
forth  the  theory  that  a  railroad  could  be  built  in 
one-third  of  the  time  and  could  be  operated  with 
one-third  of  the  number  of  employees  required  by 
a  canal,  that  it  would  never  be  frozen,  and  that 
Its  cost  of  construction  would  be  less.     But  these 
arguments  did  not  influence  the  majority,  who  felt 
that  to  follow  the  line  of  least  resistance  and  to  do 
as  others  had  done  would  involve  the  least  hazard. 
But  Baltimore,  with  her  back  against  the  wall,  did 
not  have  the  alternative  of  a  canal.    It  was  a  leap 
mto  the  unknown  for  her  or  commercial  stagnation. 
It  is  regrettable  that,  as  Baltimore  began  to 
break  this  fresh  track,  she  should  have  had  po- 
litical aa  well  as  physical  and  mechanical  obsta- 
cles  to  overcome.    The  conquest  of  the  natural 


1 


!   I 


148  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

difficulties  alone  required  superhuman  effort  and 
endurance.    But  Baltimore  had  also  to  fight  a 
miserable  internecine  warfare  in  her  own  SUt«. 
for  Maryland  immediately  subscribed  half  a  mil- 
Uon  to  the  canal  as  weU  as  to  the  newly  formed 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.   In  rival  pageants, 
both  companies  broke  ground  on  July  4. 1828,  and 
the  race  to  the  Ohio  was  on.    The  canal  company 
clung  doggedly  to  the  idle  belief  that  their  enter- 
prise was  stm  of  continental  proportions,  smce  it 
would  comiect  at  Cumberland  with  the  Cumber- 
land  Road.    This  exaggerated  estimate  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  undertaking  shines  out  in  the 
pompous  words  of  President  Mercer,  at  the  tmie 
when  construction  was  begun: 

There  are  momenU  in  the  progress  of  «">«•  T'^'*  «" 
counters  of  whole  ages.    There  are  evenU.  the  monu 
ments  of  which,  surviving  every  other  memonJ  of 
human  existence,  etemi^  the  nation  to  whose  h.sto^ 
they  belong,  after  aU  other  vestiges  of  lU  glory  have 

we  now  arrived. 

This  oracular  language  lacks  the  simple  but  win- 
ning straightforwardness  of  the  words  which  Direc- 
tor Morris  uttered  on  the  same  day  near  Baltimore 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  IRON  AGE  149 
and  wUch  prove  how  distinctly  Western  the  new 
railway  project  was  held  to  be: 

We  are  about  opening  a  channel  through  which  the 
commerce  of  the  mighty  country  beyond  the  AUe- 
gheny  must  seek  the  ocean  -  we  are  about  affording 
facdibes  of  intercourse  between  the  East  and  West! 
which  will  bmd  the  one  more  closely  to  the  other, 
^ond  the  power  of  an  increased  popuUtiou  or 
sectional  differences  to  disunite. 

The  difficulties  which  faced  the  Baltimore  en- 
thusiasts in  their  task  of  keeping  their  city  "on 
the  map"  would  have  daunted  men  of  less  heroic 
mold.     Every  conceivable  trial  and  test  which 
nature  and  machinery  could  seemingly  devise  was 
a  part  of  their  day's  work  for  twelve  years - 
struggles  with  grades,  locomotives,  rails,  cars     As 
Rumsey,  Fitch,  and  Fulton  in  their  experiments 
with  boats  had  floundered  despondently  with  end- 
less chains,  oars,  paddles,  duck's  feet,  so  now 
Thomas  and  Brown  in  then-  efforts  to  make  the 
railroad  effective  wandered  in  a  maze  of  difficulties 
testmg  out  such  absurd  and  im,       hie  ideas  as 
cars  propelled  by  sails  and  cars  op    ated  by  horse 
treadmills.    By  May.  1830,  however,  cars  on  rails 
running  by  "brigades"  and  drawn  by  horses,  were 
m  operation  in  America.    It  was  only  in  this  year 


{1^ 


150  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

that  in  England  locomotives  were  used  with  any 
marked  success  on  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
Raih-oad;  yet  in  August  of  this  year  Peter  Cooper's 
engine,  Tom  Thumb,  built  in  Baltimore  in  1829, 
traversed  the  twelve  miles  between  that  city  and 
Ellicott's  Mills  in  seventy-two  minutes.  Steel 
springs  came  in  1832,  together  with  car  wheels  of 
cylindrical  and  conical  section  which  made  it  easier 
to  turn  curves. 

The  railroad  was  just  beginning  to  master  its 
mechanical  problems  when  a  new  obstacle  con- 
fronted it  in  the  Potomac  Valley.  It  could  not 
cross  Maryland  to  the  Cumberland  mountain 
gateway  unless  it  could  follow  the  Potomac.  But 
its  rival,  the  canal,  had  inherited  from  the  old 
Potomac  Company  the  only  earthly  asset  it  pos- 
sessed of  any  value  — the  right  of  way  up  the 
Maryland  shore.  Five  years  of  quarreling  now  en- 
sued, and  the  contest,  though  it  may  not  have  seri- 
ously delayed  either  enterprise,  aroused  much  bit- 
terness and  involved  the  usual  train  of  lawsuits 
and  injunctions. 

In  1833  the  canal  company  yielded  the  raih-oad 
a  right  of  way  through  the  Point  of  Rocks  —  the 
Potomac  chasm  through  the  Blue  Ridge  wall, 
just  below  Harper's  Ferry  —  on  condition  that  the 


]i 


\v 


THE  DAWN  OP  THE  IRON  AGE       151 

railroad  should  not  build  beyond  Harper's  Ferry 
until  the  canal  was  completed  to  Cumberland.  Lut 
probably  nothing  but  the  financial  helplessness 
of  the  canal  company  could  have  brought  a  solu- 
tion satisfactory  to  all  concerned.  A  settlement  of 
the  long  quarrel  by  compromise  was  the  price  paid 
for  state  aid,  and,  in  1835  Maryland  subsidized  to  a 
large  degree  both  cunal  and  railroad  by  her  famous 
eight  million  dollar  bill.  The  railroad  received 
three  millions  from  the  State,  and  the  city  of  Balti- 
more was  permitted  to  subscribe  an  equal  amount 
of  stock.  With  this  support  and  a  free  right  of  way, 
the  railroad  pushed  on  up  the  Potomac.  Though 
delayed  by  the  financial  disasters  of  1837,  in  1842  it 
was  at  Hancock;  in  1851,  at  Piedmont;  in  1852,  at 
Fairmont;  and  the  next  year  it  reached  the  Ohio 
River  at  Wheeling. 

Spurred  by  the  enterprise  shown  by  these  South- 
erners, Pennsylvania  and  New  York  now  took  im- 
mediate steps  to  parallel  their  own  canals  by  rail- 
ways. The  line  of  the  Union  Canal  in  Pennsylvania 
was  paralleled  by  a  railroad  in  1834,  the  same  year 
in  which  the  Allegheny  Portage  Railway  was  con- 
structed. New  York  lines  reached  Buffalo  in  1842. 
The  Pennsylvania  Raiboad,  which  was  incorporated 
in  1846,  was  completed  to  Pittsburgh  in  1854. 


152  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

It  is  thus  obvious  that,  with  the  completion  of 
these  lines  and  the  building  of  the  Chesapeake  and 
Ohij  Railway  through  the  "Sapphire  Country" 
of  the  Southern  Alleghanies,  the  new  railway  era 
pursued  its  paths  of  conquest  through  the  very 
same  motmtain  passageways  that  had  been  previ- 
ously used  by  pack-horseman  and  Conestoga  and, 
in  three  instances  out  of  four,  by  the  canal  boat. 
If  one  motors  today  in  the  Juniata  Valley  in 
Pennsylvania,  he  can  survey  near  NewjKnt  a  scene 
full  of  meaning  to  one  who  has  a  taste  for  history. 
Traveling  along  the  heights  on  the  highway  that 
was  once  the  red  man's  trail,  he  can  enjoy  a  wide 
prospect  from  this  vantage  point.  Deep  in  the 
valley  glitters  the  little  Jimiata,  route  of  the  an- 
cient canoe  and  the  blundering  barge.  Beside  it 
lies  a  long  lagoon,  an  abandoned  portion  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Canal.  Beside  this  again,  as  though 
some  monster  had  passed  leaving  a  track  clear  of 
trees,  stretches  the  right  of  way  of  the  first  "Penn- 
sylvania," and  a  little  nearer  swings  the  magnifi- 
cent double-tracked  bed  of  the  railroad  of  today. 
Between  these  lines  of  travel  may  be  read  the 
history  of  the  past  two  centuries  of  American  com- 
merce, for  the  vital  factors  in  the  development  of  the 
nation  have  been  the  evolution  of  transportation 


THE  DAWN  OP  THE  IBON  AGE       ISS 

and  its  manifold  and  far-reaching  influerce  upon 
the  expansion  of  population  and  commerce  and 
upon  the  rise  of  new  industries. 

Thus  all  the  rivals  in  the  great  contest  for  the 
trade  of  the  West  speedily  reached  their  goal,  New 
York  with  the  Erie  and  the  New  York  Central,  and 
Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  with  the  Pennsylvania 
ij  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio.    But  what  of  this 

West  for  whose  commerce  the  great  struggle  was 
being  waged?  When  the  railheads  of  these  eager 
Atlantic  promoters  were  laid  down  at  Buffalo  on 
Lake  Erie  and  at  Pittsburgh  on  the  Ohio  they 
looked  out  on  a  new  world.  The  centaurs  of  the 
Western  rivers  were  no  less  things  of  the  far  past 
than  the  tinkling  bells  borne  by  the  ancient  ponies 
of  the  pack-horse  trade.  The  sons  of  this  new  West 
had  their  eyes  riveted  on  the  commerce  of  the  Great 
Lakes  and  the!  Mississippi  Valley.  With  road, 
canal,  steamboat,  and  railway,  they  were  renew- 
ing the  struggle  of  their  fathers  but  for  prizes 
greater  than  their  fathers  ever  knew. 

New  York  again  proved  the  favored  State.  Her 
Mohawk  pathway  gave  her  easiest  access  to  the 
West  and  here,  at  her  back  door  on  the  Niagara 
frontier,  lay  her  path  by  way  of  the  Great  Lakes  to 
the  North  and  the  Northwest. 


r 


(■'. 


' 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   PATHWAY    OF  THE   LAKES 

As  one  stands  in  imagination  at  the  early  railheads 
of  the  West  —  on  the  Ohio  River  at  the  end  of  the 
Cumberland  Road,  or  at  Buffalo,  the  terminus  of 
the  Erie  Canal  — the  vision  which  Washington 
caught  breaks  upon  him  and  the  dream  of  a  nation 
made  strong  by  trans-Alleghany  routes  of  com- 
merce. Link  by  link  the  great  interior  is  being 
connected  with  the  sea.  Behind  him  all  lines  of 
transportation  lead  eastward  to  the  cities  of  the 
coast.  Before  him  lies  the  giant  valley  where  the 
Father  of  Waters  throws  out  his  two  splendid 
arms,  the  Ohio  and  the  Missouri,  one  reaching 
to  the  AUeghanies  and  the  other  to  the  Rockies. 
Northward,  at  the  end  of  the  Erie  Canal,  lies  the 
empire  of  the  Great  Lakes,  inland  seas  that  wash 
the  shores  of  a  Northland  having  a  coastline  longer 
than  that  of  the  Atlantic  from  Maine  to  Mexico. 
Ships  and  conditions  of  navigation  were  much 

IM 


THE  PATHWAY  OP  THE  LAKES   IM 

the  iiame  on  the  lakes  as  on  the  ocean.  It  was 
therefore  possible  to  imagine  the  rise  of  »  <  casting 
trade  between  Illinois  and  Ohio  as  profitable  as 
that  between  Massachusetts  and  New  York.  Yet 
the  older  colonies  on  the  Atlantic  had  an  outlet  for 
trade,  whereas  the  Great  Lakes  had  none  for  craft 
of  any  size,  since  their  northern  shores  lay  beyond 
the  international  boundary.  If  there  had  been 
danger  from  Spain  in  the  Southwest,  what  of  the 
danger  of  Canada's  control  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
River  and  of  the  trade  of  the  Northwest  through 
the  Welland  Canal  which  was  to  join  Lake  Ontario 
to  Lake  Erie?  But  in  those  days  the  possibility  of 
Canadian  rivalry  was  not  treated  with  great  serious- 
ness, and  many  men  failed  to  see  that  the  West  was 
soon  to  contain  a  very  large  population.  The  edi- 
tor of  a  newspaper  at  Munroe,  i\ew  York,  com- 
menting in  1827  on  a  proposed  canal  to  connect 
Lake  Erie  with  the  Mississippi  by  way  of  the  Ohio, 
believed  that  the  rate  of  Western  development  was 
such  that  this  waterway  could  be  expected  only 
"some  hundred  of  years  hence."  Even  so  gifted 
a  man  as  Henry  Clay  spoke  of  the  proposed  canal 
between  Lake  Michigan  and  Lake  Si.^  erior  in  KiS 
as  one  relating  to  a  region  beyond  the  pale  of  civili- 
zation "if  not  in  the  moon."      Yet  in  twenty-five 


IM  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
years  Michigan,  which  had  numbered  one  thousand 
inhabitanU  in  1812,  had  gained  two  hundredfold, 
and  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  had  their  hundreds 
of  thousands  who  were  clamoring  for  ways  and 
means  of  sending  their  surplus  products  to  market. 
Early  in  the  century  representatives  of  the  Pul- 
ton-Livingston monopoly  were  at  the  shores  of 
Lake  Ontario  to  prove  that  their  steamboats  could 
master  the  waves  of  the  inland  sea  and  serve  com- 
merce there  as  well  as  in  tidewater  rivers.    True, 
the  luckless  OrUario.  built  in  1817  at  Sackett's  Har- 
bor, proved  unseaworthy  when  the  waves  lifted  the 
shaft  of  her  paddle  wheels  off  their  bearings  and 
caused  them  to  demolish  the  wooden  covering 
built  for  their  protection;  but  the  Walk-in-the- 
Water.  completed  at  Black  Rock   (Buffalo)   in 
August,  1818,  pHed  successfuUy  as  far  as  Mackinac 
Island  until  her  destruction  three  years  later.    Her 
engmes  were  then  inherited  by  the  Superior  of 
stronger  build,  and  with  the  launching  of  such 
boats  as  the  Niagara,  the  Henry  Clay,  and  the 
PioneeT,  the  fleet  builders  of  Buffalo,  Cleveland, 
and   Detroit  proved   themselves  not  unworthy 
fellow-countrymen  of  the  old  seafarers  of  Salem 
and  Philadelphia. 
But  how  were  cargoes  to  reach  these  vessels 


ii'     -1^ 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  LAKES       1B7 
from  the  vast  regions  beyond  the  Great  Lakes? 
Those  thousands  of  settlers  who  poured  into  the 
Northwest  had  cargoes  ready  to  fill  every  manner 
of  craft  in  so  short  a  space  of  time  that  it  seems  as 
if  they  must  have  resorted  to  arts  of  necromancy. 
It  was  not  magic,  however,  but  perseverance  that 
had  triumphed.    The  story  of  the  creating  of  the 
main  lakeward-reaching  canals  is  long  and  involved. 
A  period  of  agitation  and  campaigning  preceded 
every  such  undertaking;  and  when  construction 
was  once  begun,  financial  woes  usually  brought  dis- 
appointing delays.    When  a  canal  was  completed 
after  many  vicissitudes  and  doubts,  traffic  ove 
whelmed  every  method  provided  to  handle  i^: 
locks  proved  altogether  too  small;  boats  were  in- 
adequate; wharfs  became  congested;  blockades 
which  occurred  at  locks  entailed  long  delay.    In 
the  end  oidy  lines  and  double  lines  of  steel  rails 
could  solve  the  problem  of  rapid  and  adequate 
transportation,   but   the   story   of   the    railroad 
builders  b  told  elsewhere." 

Ohio  and  Blinois  caught  the  canal  fever  even 
before  the  Erie  Canal  was  completed,  and  the 
Ohio  Canal  and  the  Illinob-Michigan  Canal  saw 

>  See  nU  Railroai  BuiUeri,  by  John  Moody  (io  The  CkronieUt  (f 
Awuriea), 


!l,i 


158  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

preliminary  surveying  done  in  1822  and  1824  re- 
spectively. Ohio  particularly  had  cause  to  seek  a 
northern  outlet  to  Eastern  markets  by  way  of  Lake 
Erie.  The  valleys  of  the  Muskingum,  Scioto,  and 
Miami  rivers  were  producing  wheat  in  large  quan- 
tities as  early  as  1802,  when  Ohio  was  admitted 
to  the  Union.  Flour  which  brought  $3.50  a  barrel 
in  Cincinnati  was  worth  $3  in  New  York.  There 
were  difficulties  in  the  way  of  transportation.  Some- 
times ice  prevented  produce  and  merchandise  from 
descending  the  Ohio  to  Cincinnati.  At  other  times 
merchants  of  that  city  had  as  many  as  a  hun- 
dred thousand  barrels  awaiting  a  rise  in  the  river 
which  would  make  it  possible  for  boats  to  go  over 
the  falls  at  Louisville.  As  these  conditions  in- 
volved a  delay  which  often  seemed  intolerable,  the 
project  to  build  canals  to  Lake  Erie  met  with  gener- 
ous acclaim.  A  northward  route,  though  it  might 
be  blocked  by  ice  for  a  few  months  each  winter,  had 
an  additional  value  in  the  eyes  of  numerous  mer- 
chants whose  wheat,  sent  in  bulk  to  New  Orleans, 
had  soured  either  in  the  long  delay  at  Louisville  or 
in  the  semi-tropical  heat  of  the  Southern  port. 

The  Ohio  Legislature  in  1822  authorized  the  sur- 
vey of  all  possible  routes  for  canals  which  would 
give  Ohio  an  outlet  for  its  produce  on  Lake  Erie. 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  LAKES  159 
The  three  wheat  zones  which  have  been  mentioned 
were  favored  in  the  proposed  construction  of  two 
canab  which,  together,  should  satisfy  the  need  of 
increased  transportation:  the  Ohio  Canal  to  con- 
nect Portsmouth  on  the  Ohio  River  with  Cleveland 
on  Lake  Erie  and  to  traverse  the  richest  parts  of 
the  Scioto  and  Muskingum  valleys,  and  to  the 
west  the  Miami  Canal  to  pierce  the  fruitful  Miami 
and  Maumee  valleys  and  join  Cincinnati  with 
Toledo.  De  Witt  Clinton,  the  presiding  genius  of 
the  Erie  Canal,  was  invited  to  Ohio  to  play  god- 
father to  these  northward  arteries  which  should 
ultimately  swell  the  profits  of  the  commission 
merchants  of  New  York  City,  and  amid  the  cheers 
of  thousands  he  lifted  the  first  spadefuls  of  earth 
in  each  undertaking. 

The  Ohio  Canal,  which  was  opened  in  1833,  had 
a  marked  effect  upon  the  commerce  of  Lake  Erie. 
Before  that  date  the  largest  amount  of  wheat  ob- 
tained from  Cleveland  by  a  Buffalo  firm  had  been  a 
thousand  bushels;  but  in  the  first  year  of  its  opera- 
tion the  Ohio  Canal  brought  to  the  village  of  Cleve- 
land over  a  quarter  of  a  million  bushels  of  wheat, 
fifty  thousand  barrels  of  flour,  and  over  a  million 
pounds  of  butter  and  lard.  In  return,  the  markets 
of  the  world  sent  into  Ohio  by  canal  in  this  same 


i 


I 


ii\ 


Ik 


ifi 


160  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
year  thirty  thousand  barrels  of  salt  and  above  five 
million  pounds  of  general  merchandise. 

Ever  since  the  time  when  the  Erie  Canal  was 
begun,  Canadian  statesmen  had  been  alive  to  the 
strong  bid  New  York  was  making  for  the  trade  of 
the  Great  Lakes.  Their  answer  to  the  Erie  Canal 
was  the  Welland  Canal,  built  between  1824  and 
1832  and  connecting  Lake  Erie  with  Lake  Ontario 
by  a  series  of  twenty-seven  locks  with  a  drop  of 
three  hundred  feet  in  twenty-six  miles.  This  un- 
dertaking prepared  the  way  for  the  subsequent 
opening  of  the  St.  Lawrence  canal  system  (183 
miles)  and  of  the  Rideau  system  by  way  of  the 
Ottawa  River  (246  miles).  There  was  thus  pro- 
vided an  ocean  outlet  to  the  north,  although  it 
was  not  until  1856  that  an  American  vessel  reached 
London  by  way  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

With  the  Hudson  and  the  St.  Lawrence  in  the 
East  thus  competing  for  the  trade  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  call  of  the 
Mississippi  for  improved  highways  was  presently 
heard.  From  the  period  of  the  War  of  1812  on- 
ward the  position  of  the  Mississippi  River  in  rela- 
tion to  Lake  Michigan  was  often  referred  to  as 
holding  possibilities  of  great  importance  in  the 
development  of  Western  commerce.    Already  the 


si  t 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  LAKES       161 
old  portage-path  links  between  the  Fox  and  Wis- 
consin and  the  Chicago  and  Illinois  rivers  had  been 
worn  deep  by  the  fur  traders  of  many  generations, 
and  with  the  dawning  of  the  new  era  enthusiasts  of 
Illinois  were  pointing  out  the  strategic  position  of 
the  latter  route  for  a  great  trade  between  Lake 
Michigan  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.    Thus  the  wave 
of  enthusiasm  for  canal  construction  that  had 
swept  New  York  and  Ohio  now  reached  Indiana 
and  Illinois.    Indian  ownership  of  land  in  the 
latter  State  for  a  moment  seemed  to  block  the  pro- 
motion of  the  proposed  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal, 
but  a  handsome  grant  of  a  quarter  of  a  million 
acres  by  the  Federal  Government  in  1827  came  as 
a  signal  recognition  of  the  growing  importance  of 
the  Northwest;  and  an  appropriation  for  the  light- 
ing and  improving  of  the  harbor  of  the  little  village 
of  Chicago  was  hailed  by  ardent  promoters  as  sure 
proof  that  the  wedding  of  Lake  Michigan  and  the 
Mississippi  was  but  a  matter  of  months. 

AU  the  difficulties  encountered  by  the  advocates 
of  earlier  works  of  this  character,  in  the  valleys 
of  the  Potomac,  the  Susquehanna,  and  the  Mo- 
hawk, were  the  portion  of  these  dogged  promoters 
of  Illinois.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  there  were  rival 
routes  and  methods  of  construction,  opposition  of 


162  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
jealous  sections  not  immediately  benefited,  esti- 
mates which  had  to  be  reconsidered  and  aug- 
mented, and  so  on.  The  land  grants  pledged  to 
pay  the  bonds  were  at  first  of  small  value,  and  their 
advance  in  price  depended  on  the  success  of  the 
canal  itself,  which  could  not  be  built  —  unless  the 
State  underwrote  the  vhole  enterprise — if  the  lands 
were  not  worth  the  bonds.  Thus  the  argument 
ran  in  a  circle,  and  no  one  could  foresee  the  splen- 
did traffic  and  receipts  from  tolls  that  would  result 
from  the  completed  canal. 

The  commissioners  in  charge  of  the  project  per- 
formed one  interesting  service  in  these  early  days 
by  putting  Chicago  on  the  map;  but  the  tw3  termi- 
nals, Ottawa  on  the  Illinois  and  Chicago  on  Lake 
Michigan  —  both  plotted  in  1?30  —  were  very 
largely  figures  of  speech  at  that  time.  The  day  of 
miracles  was  at  hand,  however,  for  the  little  town 
of  one  hundred  people  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Michigan. 
The  purchase  of  the  lands  of  the  Potawatomies,  the 
Black  Hawk  War  in  1832,  which  brought  steam- 
boats to  Chicago  for  the  first  time,  and  the  deci- 
sion of  Illinois  in  1836  to  pledge  her  good  name  in 
favor  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  made 
Chicago  a  city  of  four  thousand  people  by  the 
panic  year  of  1837.  So  absorbed  were  these  Chicago 


THE  PATHWAY  OP  THE  LAKES  16S 
folk  in  the  building  of  their  canal  and  in  wrest- 
ing from  their  lake  firm  foothold  for  a  city  (re- 
claiming four  hundred  feet  of  lake  bed  in  two  years) 
that  the  panic  affected  their  town  less  than  it  did 
many  a  rival.  Although  the  canal  enterprise  came 
to  an  ominous  pause  in  1842,  after  the  expenditure 
of  five  millions,  the  pledge  of  the  State  stood 
the  enterprise  in  good  stead.  Local  financiers,  to- 
gether with  New  York  and  Boston  promoters,  ad- 
vanced about  a  quarter  of  a  million,  while  French 
and  English  bankers,  notably  Baring  Brothers, 
contributed  about  three-quarterr  of  a  million. 
With  this  assistance  the  work  was  carried  to  a 
successful  ending.  On  April  10, 1848,  the  first  boat 
passed  over  the  ninety-mile  route  from  Chicago  to 
Ottawa,  and  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi 
Basin  were  united  by  this  Erie  Canal  of  the  West. 
Though  its  days  of  greatest  value  were  soon  over, 
no  one  can  exaggerate  the  importance  of  this  water- 
way in  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  Chicago  be- 
tween 1848  and  1860.  By  1857  Chicago  was  send- 
ing north  und  south  annually  by  boat  over  twenty 
million  bushels  of  wheat  and  com. 

The  awakening  of  the  lands  behind  Lake  Erie, 
Lake  Huron,  and  Lake  Michigan  brought  forth  in- 
numerable demands  for  roads,  canals,  and  railways 


<'\ 


I 


164  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMEBCE 
to  the  ports  of  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Toledo,  De- 
troit, Milwaukee,  and  Chicago.     There  were  ac- 
tually hundreds  of  these  enterprises  undertaken. 
The  development  of  the  land  behind  Lake  Superior 
was  particularly  spectacular  and  important,  not 
only  because  of  its  general  effect  on  the  industrial 
world  but  also  because  out  of  it  came  the  St. 
Mary's  River  Ship  Canal.    Nowhere  in  the  zone 
of  the  Great  Lakes  has  any  region  produced  such 
unexpected  changes  in  American  industrial  and 
commercial  life  as  did  the  region  of  Michigan, 
Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota  contributory  to  Lake 
Superior.    K,  as  the  story  goes,  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin said,  when  he  drew  at  Paris  the  international 
boundary  line  through  Lake  Superior,  that  this  was 
his  greatest  service  to  America,  he  did  not  exagger- 
ate.   The  line  running  north  of  Isle  Royale  and 
thence  to  the  I^ake  of  .h«>  Woods  gave  the  United 
States  the  lion's  share  of  that  great  inland  seaboard 
and  the  inestimably  rich  deposits  of  copper  and  iron 
that  have  revolutionized  American  industry. 

From  earliest  days  rumors  of  deposits  of  bright 
copper  in  the  land  behind  Lake  Superior  had  been 
reported  by  Indians  to  fur  traders  who  in  turn  had 
passed  the  story  on  to  fur  company  agents  and  thus 
to  the  outside  world.    As  a  result  of  her  "Toledo 


THE  PATHWAY  OP  THE  LAKES  185 
War"  —  as  her  boundary  dispute  was  called  — 
Michigan  had  reluctantly  accepted  the  northern 
peninsula  ;ying  between  Lake  Superior  and  Lake 
Michigan  in  lieu  of  the  strip  of  Ohio  territory  which 
she  believed  to  be  hers.  If  Michigan  felt  that  she 
had  lost  by  this  compromise,  her  state  geologist, 
Douglass  Houghton,  soon  foimd  a  splendid  jewd 
in  the  toad's  head  of  defeat,  for  the  report  of  his 
sm'vey  of  1840  confirmed  the  story  of  the  existence 
of  large  copper  deposits,  and  the  first  rush  to  El 
Dorado  followed.  Amid  the  usual  chaos,  conflict, 
and  failure  incident  to  such  stampedes,  order  and 
system  at  last  triumphed  and  the  richest  copper 
mines  of  the  New  World  were  uncovered.  Then 
came  the  imexpected  finding  of  the  mammoth  iron- 
ore  beds  by  William  A.  Burt,  inventor  of  the  solar 
compass.  The  circumstance  of  this  discovery  is  of 
such  national  importance  that  a  contemporary  de- 
scription by  a  member  of  Burt's  party  which  was 
surveying  a  line  near  Marquette,  Michigan,  is 
worth  quoting: 


I  shall  never  forget  the  excitement  of  the  old  gentle- 
man when  viewing  the  changes  of  the  variation.  He 
kept  changing  his  position  to  take  observations,  all 
the  time  saying  "How  would  they  survey  this  country 
without  my  compass"  and  "What  could  be  done  here 


166  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

without  my  compass."  At  length  the  compawman 
called  for  us  all  to  "come  and  see  a  variation  which 
will  beat  them  all."  Aa  we  looked  at  the  instrument, 
to  our  astonishment,  the  north  end  of  the  needle  was 
traversing  a  few  degrees  to  the  south  west.  Mr.  Burt 
called  out  "Boys,  look  around  and  see  what  you  can 
find."  We  all  left  the  line,  some  going  to  the  east, 
some  going  to  the  west,  and  all  of  us  returned  with 
specimens  of  iron  ore. 

But  it  was  not  enough  that  this  Aladdin's  Land 
in  the  Northwest  should  revolutionize  the  copper 
and  steel  industry  of  the  world,  for  as  soon  as  the 
soil  took  to  its  bosom  an  enterprising  race  of  agricul- 
turists it  bade  fair  to  play  as  equally  important  a 
part  in  the  grain  industry.  Copjier  and  iron  no 
less  came  out  of  th>>  blue  of  this  cold  northern 
region  than  did  the  mighty  crops  of  Minnesota 
wheat,  com,  and  oats.  In  the  decade  preceding  the 
Civil  War  the  export  of  wheat  from  Lake  Superior 
rose  from  fourteen  hundred  bushels  to  three  and  a 
quarter  millions  of  bushels,  while  in  1859  nearly 
seven  million  bushels  of  com  and  oats  were  sent 
out  to  the  world. 

The  commerce  of  Lake  Superior  could  not  await 
the  building  of  a  canal  around  the  foaming  rapids 
of  the  St.  Mary's  River,  its  one  outlet  to  the  lower 
lakes.    Li  the  decade  following  the  discovery  of 


THE  PATHWAY  OP  THE  LAKES  1«T 
copper  and  iron  more  than  a  dozen  ships,  one  even 
of  as  much  as  five  hundred  tons,  were  hauled  bodily 
across  the  portage  between  Lake  Huron  and  Lake 
Superior.  The  last  link  of  navigation  in  the  Great 
Lake  system,  however,  was  made  possible  in  1852 
by  a  grant  by  Congress  of  750,000  acres  of  Michi- 
gan land.  Although  only  a  mile  in  length,  the 
work  proved  to  be  of  unusual  diflBculty  since  the 
pathway  for  the  canal  had  to  be  blast-id  through- 
out practically  its  whole  length  out  of  solid  rock. 
It  was  completed  in  1855,  and  the  princely  empire 

in  the  moon  "  was  in  a  position  to  make  its  terms 
with  the  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania  and  to  usher  in 
the  iron  age  of  transportation  and  construction. 

It  is  only  in  the  light  of  this  awakening  of  the 
lands  around  the  Great  Lakes  that  one  can  sec 
plainly  the  task  which  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  succes- 
sors of  the  frail  Walk-in-the-Waier  and  sturdier 
Supmor  of  the  early  twenties.  For  the  first  fifteen 
years  the  steamboat  found  its  mission  in  carrying 
the  thousands  of  emigrants  pouring  into  the  North- 
west, a  heterogeneous  multitude  which  made  the 
Lake  Erie  boats  seem,  to  one  traveler  at  least, 
filled  with  "men,  women  and  children,  beds,  cra- 
dles, kettles,  and  frying  pans."  These  craft  were 
built  after  the  pattern  of  the  WaUc-in-ihe-WaUr  — 


188  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
ride-wheelers  with  a  steering  wheel  at  the  rtem. 
No  cabins  or  steterooms  on  deck  were  j,rovided; 
and  amid  such  freight  as  the  thriving  young  towns 
provided  were  to  be  found  the  twenty  or  thirty 
cords  of  wood  which  the  engines  required  as  fuel. 
The  second  period  of  steamboating  began  with 
the  opening  of  the  Ohio  Canal  and  the  Welland 
Canal  about  1834  and  extended  another  fifteen 
years  to  the  middle  of  the  century,  when  it  under- 
went a  transformation  owing  to  the  great  develop- 
ment of  Chicago,  the  completion  of  the  Illinois  and 
Michigan  and  St.  Mary's  canals,  and  the  new  rail- 
ways.   This  second  period  was  marked  by  the 
building  of  such  steamers  as  the  Michigan,  the 
Great  Western,  and  the  lUinois.    These  were  the 
first  boats  with  an  upper  cabin  and  were  looked 
upon  with  marked  suspicion  by  those  best  ac- 
quainted with  the  severe  storms  upon  the  Great 
Lakes.    The  JficAJj^an,  of  475  tons,  built  by  Oliver 
Newbeny  at  Detroit  in  1833.  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  ship  of  this  type.    These  boats  proved 
their  seaworthiness  and  caused  a  revolution  in  the 
construction  of  lake  craft.    Later  in  this  period 
freight  transportation  saw  an  equally  radical  ad- 
vance with  the  building  of  the  first  propellers.  The 
sloop-rigged  Vandalia,  built  by  Sylvester  DoolitUe 


THE  PATHWAY  OP  THE  LAKES  leo 
•t  Oswego  on  Lake  Ontario  in  1841-42,  was  the  first 
of  the  propeller  type  and  was  soon  followed  by  the 
HereuUt,  the  Sanuon,  and  the  Detroit. 

One  very  great  handicap  in  lake  commeKe  up 
to  this  time  had  been  the  lack  of  harbors.  Detroit 
alone  of  the  lake  ports  was  distinctly  favored  in  this 
respect.  The  harbors  of  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Ad- 
waukee,  and  C3ucago  were  improved  slowly,  but 
it  was  not  until  the  great  Chicago  convention  of 
1846  that  the  nation's  attention  was  focused  on 
the  needs  of  Western  rivers  and  harbors,  and  there 
dawned  a  new  era  of  lighthouses  and  buoys,  break- 
waters and  piers,  and  dredged  channels.  Another 
handicap  to  the  volume  of  business  which  the  lake 
boats  handled  in  the  period  just  previous  to  the 
Civil  War  was  the  inadequacy  of  the  feeders,  the 
roads,  riverways,  and  canals.  The  Erie  Canal  was 
declared  too  small  almost  before  the  cries  of  its 
virulent  opponents  had  died  away,  and  the  en- 
largement of  its  locks  was  soon  undertaken.  The 
same  thing  proved  true  of  the  Ohio  and  Illinois 
canab.  The  failure  of  the  Welland  Canal  was 
similarly  a  very  serious  handicap.  Although  its 
locks  were  enlarged  in  1841,  it  was  found  by  1850 
that  despite  the  improvements  it  could  not  admit 
more  than  about  one-third  of  the  grain-carrying 


u\ 


i 


11 

I 


170  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COBIMEBCE 

boats,  whUe  only  one  in  four  of  the  new  propellers 
could  enter  its  locks. 

As  late  as  the  middle  forties  men  did  not  in  the 
:east  giasp  the  commercial  situation  which  now 
confronted  the  Northwest  nor  could  they  foresee 
that  the  land  behind  the  Great  Lakes  was  about  to 
deluge  the  country  with  an  output  of  produce  and 
manufactures  of  which  the  roads,  canals,  ships, 
wharfs,  or  warehouses  in  existence  could  handle 
not  a  tenth  part.    They  did  not  yet  understand 
that  this  trade  was  to  become  national.    It  was 
well  on  in  the  forties  before  the  Galena  lead  mines, 
for  insUnce,  were  given  up  as  the  terminal  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad  and  the  main  line  was 
directed  to  Chicago.    The  middle  of  the  century 
was  reached  before  the  Lake  Shore  was  considered 
at  Cleveland  or  Chicago  as  important  commer- 
cially as  the  neighboring  portage  paths  which  by 
the  Ordinance  of  1787  had  been  created  "common 
highways  forever  free."    The  idea  of  joining  Buffa- 
lo, Cleveland,  and  Chicago  with  the  interior  —  an 
idea  as  old  as  the  Indian  trails  thither  —  stiU  domi- 
nated men's  minds  even  in  the  early  part  of  the 
raiboad  epoch.    Chicago  desired  to  be  o.Jnected 
with  Cairo,  the  ice-free  port  on  the  Mississippi; 
and  Cleveland  was  eager  to  be  joined  to  Columbuc 


THE  PATHWAY  OF  THE  LAKES  IW 
•nd  Cincinnati.  The  enthusiastic  railway  pro- 
moters of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  drew  splendid 
plans  for  uniting  all  parts  of  those  States  by  rail 
way  lines;  but  the  strategic  position  of  the  cities  on 
the  continental  alignment  from  New  York  to  the 
Pacific  by  way  of  South  Pass  never  came  with- 
in their  horizon.  The  ten  million  dollar  Illinois 
scheme  did  not  even  contemplate  a  railway  run- 
ning eastward  from  Chicago.  But  the  future  of 
the  commerce  of  the  Great  Lakes  depended  abso- 
lutely \ij  in  this  development.  There  was  no  hope 
of  any  canals  being  able  to  handle  the  tra£Sc  of  the 
mighty  empire  which  was  now  awake  and  fully 
conscious  of  its  power.  Th»  solution  lay  in  joining 
the  cities  to  each  other  and  to  the  Atlantic  world 
markets  by  iron  rails  running  east  and  west. 

This  railroad  expansion  is  what  makes  the  last 
decade  before  the  Civil  War  such  a  remarkable 
series  of  years  in  the  West.  In  the  half  decade, 
1850-55,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  and  Pennsyl- 
vania railv/ays  reached  the  Ohio  River;  the  links 
of  tue  present  Lake  Shore  system  between  Buffalo 
and  Chicago  by  way  of  Cleveland  and  Toledo  were 
constructed;  and  the  Pennsylvania  line  was  put 
through  from  PiMjburgh  to  Chicago.  The  place 
of  the  lake  country  on  the  continental  alignment 


% 


m  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

•^  the  imperial  situation  of  CUcago.  and  later  of 
Omaha,  came  to  be  realized.  The  new  view  trana- 
formed  men's  conceptions  of  every  port  on  the 
Great  Lakes  in  the  chain  from  Buffalo  to  Chicago 
At  a  dozen  southern  ports  on  Ontario.  Erie.  Huron' 
and  Michigan,  commerce  now  touched  the  swiftest 
and  most  economical  means  of  transcontinental 
traffic.  This  development  culminated  in  the  mir- 
acle  we  caU  Chicago.  In  1847  not  a  line  of  raQ 
entered  the  town;  its  population  then  numbered 

about  twenty-five  thousand  and  its  property  valua. 
Uon  approximated  seven  millions.  Ten  years  later 
four  thousand  miles  of  railway  comiected  with  aU 
four  pomts  of  the  compass  a  city  of  nearly  one  hun- 
dred  thousand  people,  and  property  valuation  had 
mcreased  five  hmidred  per  cent.  The  growth  of 
Buffalo.  Cleveland,  and  Detroit  during  this  period 
was  also  phenomenal. 

When  the  crisis  of  1861  came,  the  service  per- 
formedby  the  Walk-in-the-Water  ^dher  Bux^cessoa 
was  seen  in  its  true  light.  The  Great  Lakes  as 
avenues  of  migration  had  played  a  providential 
part  m  filling  a  northern  empire  with  a  proud  and 
loyal  race;  from  farm  and  factory  regiment  on  regi- 
ment marched  forth  to  fight  for  unity;  from  fields 
without  number  produce  to  sustain  a  nation  on 


THE  PATHWAY  OP  THE  LAKES  17S 
trial  poured  forth  in  abundance;  enormous  quanti- 
ties of  iron  were  at  hand  for  the  casting  of  cannon 
and  cannon  balls;  and.  finally,  pathways  of  water 
and  steel  were  in  readiness  in  the  nick  of  time 
to  cany  these  resources  where  they  would  count 
tremendously  in  the  four  long  years  of  conflict. 


f 


m 

iiij 

I 


CHAPTER  XI 


i 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST 

Two  great  fields  of  service  lay  open  before  those 
who  were  to  achieve  by  steam  the  mastery  of  the 
inland  waterways.  On  the  one  hand  the  cotton 
kingdom  of  the  Soath,  now  demanding  great  stores 
of  manufactured  goods,  produce,  and  machineiy. 
was  waiting  to  be  linked  to  the  valleys  and  indus- 
trial cities  of  the  Middle  West;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  along  those  great  eastward  and  westward 
rivers,  the  Ohio  and  Missouri,  lay  the  commerce 
of  the  prairies  and  the  Great  Plains.  But  before 
the  steamboat  could  serve  the  inland  commerce  of 
the  West,  it  had  to  be  constructed  on  new  lines. 
The  craft  brought  from  the  seaboard  were  of  too 
deep  draft  to  navigate  shallow  streams  which  ran 
through  this  more  level  country. 

The  task  of  constructing  a  great  inland  river 
marine  to  play  the  dual  r61e  of  serving  the  cotton 
empire  and  of  extending  American  migration  and 
m 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST    175 

commerce  into  the  trans-Mississippi  region  was 
solved  by  Henry  Shreve  when  he  built  the  Wash- 
ington at  Wheeling  in  1816.  Shreve  was  the  Ameri- 
can John  Hawkins.  Hawkins,  that  sturdy  old  ad- 
miral of  Elizabethan  days,  took  the  English  ship 
of  his  time,  trimmed  down  the  high  stern  and  poop 
decks,  and  cut  away  the  deep-lying  prow  and  stem, 
after  the  fashion  - '  our  modern  cup  defenders,  and 
in  a  day  gave  England  the  key  to  sea  mastery  in 
the  shape  of  a  new  ship  that  would  take  sail  and 
answer  her  rudder  beyond  anything  the  maritime 
world  until  then  had  known.  Shreve,  like  Haw- 
kins, flagrantly  ignoring  the  conventional  wisdom  of 
his  day  and  craft,  built  the  Washington  to  sail  on 
the  water  instead  of  in  it,  doing  away  altogether 
with  a  hold  and  supplying  an  upper  deck  in 
its  place. 

To  few  inventors,  indeed,  does  America  owe  a 
greater  debt  of  thanks  than  to  this  Ohio  River  ship- 
builder. A  dozen  men  were  on  the  way  to  produce 
a  Clermont  had  Fulton  failed;  but  Shreve  had  no 
rival  in  his  plan  to  build  a  flat-bottomed  steam- 
boat. The  remarkable  success  of  his  design  is  at- 
tested by  the  fact  that  in  two  decades  the  boats 
built  on  his  model  outweighed  in  tonnage  all  the 
ships  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and  Great  Lakes 


I, 


\( 


ire  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMEHCE 

combined.    Immediately  the  Ohio  became  in  effect 
the  western  ertension  of  the  great  national  high- 
way and  opened  an  eas^.  pathway  for  inunigration 
to  the  eastern  as  well  as  the  western  lands  of  the 
M.ssu«,pp,Basin.  The  story  goes  that  an  old  phleg- 
matic  negro  watched  the  approach  of  one  of  the 
first  steamboats  to  the  wharf  of  a  Southern  city 
Like  many  others,  he  had  doubted  the  practicabfl- 
ity  of  this  new-fangled  Yankee  notion.    The  boat 
however,  came  and  went  with  ea.e  and  dispatch! 
llie  old  negro  was  converted.     "By  goUy  "  he 
shouted,  waving  his  cap.  "the  Mississippi's  got 
her  Massa  now."  . 

The  Mississippi  had  indeed  found  her  master, 
but  only  by  slow  degrees  and  after  intervals  of  pro- 
tracted rebellion  did  she  succumb  to  that  master 
Luckily,  however,  there  was  at  hand  an  army  of 
unusual  men  -  the  "alligator-horses"  of  the  flat- 
boat  era -upon  whom  the  steamboat  could  call 
with  supreme  confidence  that  they  would  not  fail. 

TheodoreRoosevelth«,saidoftheWestempioneers 
thatthey  had  to  be  good  and  strong  -  especially, 
strong.      If  these  men  upon  whom  the  success  of 

the  steamboatdependedwerenot  always  good,  they 
w  re  beyond  any  doubt  behemoths  in  strength 
The  task  before  them,  however,  wasataak  worthy 


THt.  STBAMBH  ' 


Tlw  Int  vend  that  w 
operated  by  the  Americma 
dnwtg(  Lj  Ckaiha  BodiMt; 
dmmai.    In  th*  New  York 


ill 


.  ^"^  *fiE  >AiTO  m  mum  camsmx 

the  w«la»  «t««i«  ,rf  theg^at  nati««l  hi^ 
^  «d  i9,md  m  *m  pathway  for  imirigratw 
to  the  ewtoi  «  ^m  „  the  w<»tcrn  Wda  of  the 
M«-.^auJB.  'rV.torygoe8th«tanoldphJ«f. 
^  n^  Wlriirf  the  approach  of  a»e  <rf  the 
finl  »t««al»o^  to  the  wharfaf  .  SoBthemdt, 
^^y  oth«^  he  h«l  doubted  the  practicabfl- 


her  Maasa  now."  xwkIU  aild"q' .  wY  ""TlIi    I^^ 
.    '^''^  Miaai»sippi  had  indeed  found  h«  maater 

but  only  by  aW  degttes  and  after  internals  of  pro.' 
trarted  rebellion  did  idie  «H»umb  to  that  master  i 
W«4ily.  however,  there  waa  at  hand  an  anny  of 
«im»ua!  men  -  the  ■'affigator-homa  "  of  the  flat- 
bott  ef.-  upon  whon,  the  rteainboat  could  a»n 
^  <^lf^  oonfideaee  thirf  they  would  not  fafl. 

«ta«g."    H  tk*  v^  ,|p«,  ^hon.  the  success  of 
the  steamboat  .4»MgW^,«  not  j^,y^p^^ 
were  beyond  any  *«!«  l»h«noths  in  strength 
The  taj*  before  <fc«»,hwev«;,  waaataak  worthy 


-;£T';*wr-  -.^v^;'^;;i::T^y 


i 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST    m 
Of  Hercules.    Tie  great  river  boldly  fought  ita 
conquerors,  asking  and  giving  no  quarter,  biding 
Its  time  when  opposed  by  the  brave  but  crushing 
Uie  fearful  on  sight.    In  one  respect  alone  could  it 
be  d«^)ended  upon  —  it  was  never  the  same.    It  is 
said  to  bring  down  annually  four  hundred  million 
tons  of  mud.  but  its  eccentricity  in  deciding  where 
to  wash  away  and  where  to  deposit  its  load  is  stiU 
the  despair  of  river  pilots.    The  great  river  could 
destroy  islands  and  build  new  ones  overnight  with 
the  nonchalance  of  a  child  playing  with  clay     It 
could  shorten  itself  thirty  miles  at  a  single  lunge. 
It  could  move  inland  towns  to  its  banks  and  leave 
nver  towns  far  inland.    It  transferred  the  town  of 
Delta,  for  instance,  from  three  miles  below  Vicks- 
burg  to  two  miles  above  it.    Men  have  gone  to 
sleep  in  one  Sute  and  have  wakened  unharmed  in 
another,  because  the  river  decided  in  the  night  to 
alter  the  boundary  line.    In  this  way  the  village  of 
Hard  Times,  the  original  site  of  which  was  in  Louisi- 
ana, found  itself  eventuallv  in  .Jississippi.    Were 
La  SaUe  to  descend  the  river  today  by  the  route  he 
traversed  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago,  he  would 
follow  dry  ground  most  of  the  way.  for  the  river 
now  lies  practically  everywhere  either  to  the  right 
or  left  of  its  old  course. 


!),« 


178  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

If  the  Miasinippi  could  perform  such  miracle* 
upon  its  whole  course  without  a  show  of  effort, 
what  could  it  not  do  with  the  little  winding  canal 
through  its  center  called  by  pilots  the  "channel"? 
The  flatboatmen  had  laboriously  acquired  the  art  of 
piloting  the  commerce  of  the  West  through  this 
mazy,  shifting  channel,  but  as  steamboats  devd- 
oped  in  size  and  power  the  man  at  the  wheel  had 
to  become  almost  a  superman.  He  needed  to  be. 
He  must  know  the  stage  of  water  anywhere  by  a 
glance  at  the  river  banks.  He  must  guess  correctly 
the  amount  of  "  fill "  at  theheadof  dangerouschutes, 
detect  bars  "working  down,"  distinguish  between 
bars  and  "sand  reefs"  or  "wind  reefs"  or  "bluff 
reefs"  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  avoid  the"  breaks" 
in  the  "graveyard  "behind  Goose  Island,  navigate 
the  Hat  Island  chutes,  or  find  the  "middle  crossing" 
at  Hole-in-the-Wall.  He  must  navigate  his  craft 
in  fogs,  in  storms,  in  the  face  of  treacherous  winds, 
on  black  nights,  with  thousands  of  dollars'  worth 
of  cargo  and  hundreds  of  lives  at  stake. 

As  the  golfer  knows  each  knoll  and  tuft  of  grass 
on  his  home  links,  so  the  pilot  learned  his  river  by 
heart.    Saw  one  of  these  pilots  to  an  apprentice: 

You  see  this  has  got  to  be  learned.  ...    A  clear  star- 
light night  throws  such  heavy  shadows  that  if  you 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST    m 
didn't  know  the  A.pe  of  .  shore  perfectly  you  would 

would  Uke  the  bl^k  .hadow  of  it  for  a  .olid  cape;  and 
you  ^  you  would  be  getting  wared  to  death  every 
fift«>n  mmutes  by  the  watcL  You  would  be  fifty 
yards  from  shore  all  the  time  when  you  ought  to  be 
w.thm  fifly  feet  of  it.  You  can't  see  a  snag'in  one  of 
those  shadows  but  you  know  exactly  where  it  is,  and 
the  shape  of  the  nver  teUs  you  when  you  are  coming 
to  It.  Then  there  s  your  pitch-dark  night;  the  river 
IS  a  very  different  shape  on  a  pitch-dark  night  from 
what  It  IS  on  a  starlight  night.  AU  shores  seem  to  be 
atnught  hnes   then,  and  mighty  dim  ones,  too;  and 

beTter  "'vn^.^/'^^'*  """  ""'^  ^^^  ^now 
^tter     You  boldly  dnve  your  boat  right  into  what 

seemstobea  sohd,  straight  wall  (you  knowing  very 

w!S  f  n  r  r''^'  ""f"  '"  "  '"^''  «'"<')  «d  thai 
waU  falls  back  and  makes  way  for  you.  Then  there's 
your  gray  mist.  You  take  a  night  when  there's  one 
of  these  gnsly,  dnzzly.  gray  mists,  and  then  there 
isn  tany  particular  shape  to  a  shore.  A  gray  mist 
would  tangle  the  head  of  the  oldest  man  that  ever 
hv^d  WeU  then,  different  kinds  of  moonligHt  chan^ 
the  shape  of  the  nver  in  different  ways Y^ 

°^1  r/^''  "'"''^  "'  ^^^  """'  """^  y°»  •««"»  it  with 
such  absolute  certamty  that  you  can  always  steer  by 
the  shape  that's  .n  your  head  and  never  mind  the  one 
tnat  s  before  your  eyes. ' 

No  wonder  that  the  two  hundred  miles  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi from  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  to  St.  Louis 
■  MMk  TwMa.  lif,  on  llu  Muriuippi,  pp.  lOS-M. 


I: 


y 


V- 


Si 


» 


180  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

in  time  conUined  the  wrecks  of  two  hundred 
ateamboata. 

The  river  trade  reached  ita  zenith  between  1840 
and  1860,  in  the  two  decades  previous  to  the  Civil 
War,  that  period  before  the  raiboada  began  to 
parallel  the  great  rivers.    It  was  a  time  which  saw 
the  rise  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri,  Iowa, 
and  Arkansas,  and  which  witnessed  the  spread 
of  the  cotton  kingdom  into  the  Southwest.    The 
atoiy  of  King  Cotton's  conquest  of  the  Mississippi 
South  is  bf-st  told  in  sUtistics.    In  1811,  the  year 
of  the  first  voyage  which  the  New  Orleans  made 
down  the  Ohio  River,  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  and 
Mississippi  exported  five  million  pounds  of  cotton. 
In  1834  these  same  States  exported  almost  two  hun- 
dred million  pounds  of  cotton.    To  take  care  of 
this  crop  and  to  supply  the  cotton  country,  which 
was  becoming  wealthy,  with  the  necessaries  and 
luxuries  of  life,  more  and  more  steamboats  were 
needed.    The  great  shipyards  situated,  because  of 
the  proximity  of  suitable  timber,  at  St.  Louis,  Cin- 
cinnati, and  Louisville  became  busy  hives,  not 
since  paralleled  except  by  such  centers  of  ship- 
building as  Hog  Island  in  1917-18,  during  the  time 
of  the  Great  War.    The  steamboat  tonnage  of  the 
Mississippi  VaUey  (exclusive  of  New  Orleans)  in 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST    181 
the  hiMUiii«  forties  exceeded  that  of  the  AtlanUc 
port,  (exdiuive  of  New  York  City)  by  15.000  tons. 
The  steamboat  tonnage  of  New  Orleans  alone  in 
1843  was  more  than  double  that  of  New  York  City 
Those  who.  if  the  old  story  is  true,  ran  in  fear  to 
the  hills  when  the  litUe  Neu>  Orleans  went  puffing 
down  the  OUo,  in  1811.  would  have  been  doubly 
*mazed  at  the  splendid  development  in  the  art  of 
boat  building,  could  they  have  seen  the  stately 
SuUana  or  Southern  Belle  of  the  fifties  sweep  swiftly 
by.    After  a  period  of  gaudy  ornamentation  (1830- 
40)  steamboat  architecture  setUed  down,  as  has 
that  of  Pullman  can:  today,  to  sane  and  practical 
hnes,  and  the  boate  gained  in  length  and  strength, 
though  they  contained  less  weight  of  timber.    The 
value  of  one  of  the  greater  boats  of  this  era  would 
be  about  fifty  thousand  dollars.    When  Captain 
Bixby  made  his  celebrated  night  crossing  at  Hat 
Island  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  in  ship  and  cargo 
rould  have  been  the  price  of  an  error  in  judgment 
according  to  Mark  Twain.  ■  a  good  authority. 

The  Yorklcmi,  built  in  1844  for  the  Ohio-Missis- 

sippi  trade,  was  typical  of  that  epoch  of  inland 

commerce.    Her  length  was  182  feet,  breadth  of 

beam  31  feet,  and  the  diameter  of  wheels  28  feet. 

'Op.at.,p.vti. 


f'i  I 


182  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
Though  her  hold  was  8  feet  in  depth,  yet  she  drew 
but  4  feet  of  water  light  and  barely  over  8  feet  when 
loaded  with  500  tons  of  freight.    She  had  4  boilers, 
80  feet  long  and  48  inches  in  diameter,  double 
engmes,  and  two  24-inch  cylinders.    The  state- 
room cabin  had  come  in  with  Captain  Isaiah  Sel- 
lers's  Prairie  in  1836,  the  first  boat  with  such  luxu- 
ries ever  seen  in  St.  Louis,  according  to  Sellers.   The 
Yorktown  had  40  private  cabins.    It  is  interesting 
to  compare  the  Vorktoten  with  The  Queen  of  the 
West,  the  giant  British  steamer  built  for  the  Fal- 
mouth-Calcutta  trade  in  1839.     The  Queen  of  the 
West  had  a  length  of  310  feet,  a  beam  of  31  feet,  a 
draft  of  15  feet,  and  16  private  cabins.     The  build- 
ing of  this  great  vessel  led  a  writer  in  the  New  York 
American  to  say:    "It  would  really  seem  that  we 
as  a  nation  had  no  interest  in  this  new  application 
of  steam  power,  or  no  energy  to  appropriate  it  to 
our  own  use."    The  sUtement  —  written  in  a  day 
when  the  Mississippi  steamboat  tonnage  exceeded 
that  of  the  entire  British  Empire  —  is  one  of  the 
best  examples  of  provincial  ignorance  concerning 
the  West. 

On  these  steamboate  there  was  a  multiplicity  of 
arrangements  and  equipments  for  preventing  and 
for  fighting  fire.    One  of  the  innovations  on  the 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  TH?  "vVEST  183 
new  boats  in  this  particular  was  tue  suk^itinion 
of  wire  for  the  combustible  rope  for  «ierlv  us.  J  to 
control  the  tiller,  so  that  even  in  time  of  tire  th.  pilot 
could  'hold  her  nozzle  agin'  the  bank."  Much 
of  the  great  loss  of  life  in  steamboat  fires  had  been 
due  to  the  tiller-ropes  being  burned  and  the  boats 
beconung  unmanageable. 

The  aiTival  of  the  raihxwd  at  the  head  of  the 
Ohio  River  in  the  early  fifties  brought  the  East 
mtoan  immediate  touch  with  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley unknown  before.    But  however  bold  railway 
engineers  were  in  the  face  of  the  ragged  ranges 
of  the  AUeghanies,  they  could  not  then  out-guess 
the  tncks  of  the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi,  or  the  Mis- 
souri, and  railway  promoters  could  not  afford  to 
take  chances  on  having  their  stations  and  tracks 
unexpectedly  isolated,  if  not  actually  carried  away 
by  swirhng.  yellow  floods.    The  Mississippi,  too. 
had  been  known  at  times  to  achieve  a  width  of 
seventy  miles,  and  tributaries  have  overflowed 
their  banks  to  a  proportionate  extent.    It  was 
several  decades  ere  the  Ohio  was  paralleled  by  a 
rmlway.  and  the  Mississippi  for  long  distances  even 
today  has  not  yet  heard  the  shrill  ay  of  the  loco- 
motive.   So  the  steamboat  entered  its  heyday  and 
encountered  litUe  competition.    Until  the  Civil 


'(' 


ill 


\'ii 


fl 


I.'     ' 


( 


11 


184  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 
War  the  rivers  of  the  West  remained  the  grea- 
artenes  of  trade,  canying  grain  and  merchandise 
of  every  description  southward  and  bringing  bad 
cotton,  rice,  and  sugar.  «    K  "acn 

The  rivah^es  of  the  great  lines  of  packets  estab- 
li^ed  m  these  days  of  the  steamboat,  however 
equaled  anything  ever  known  in  railway  competi- 
bon  and.  „,  the  matter  of  fast  time,  became  mo«, 
spectacular  than  anything  of  its  kind  in  any  line  of 
tauisportationinourcountiy.  With  flags  flying 
boUers  heated  white  with  abundance  of  pme  and 
r^n  and  bold  and  skillful  pilots  at  the  steering 
wheels  no  sport  of  kings  ever  aroused  the  enthuZ 
«m  of  hundreds  of  thousands  to  such  a  pitch  as 

The  J.M.  White  and  her  performances  stand 
out  conspicuously  in  the  amials  of  the  river.    Her 
bmlder.  familiarly  known  to  a  generation  of  river- 
men  as  Billy  King,  deserves  to  rarJc  with  Henry 
^eve     Commissioned  in  1844  to  build  the  y.Jf.    , 
Z^-^\    M.  Converse  of  St.  Louis,  with  funds 
«»pph«l  by  Robert  Chouteau  of  that  city.  King 
proceeded  U>  put  into  effect  the  knowledge  wWch 
he  had  denved  from  a  close  study  of  the  swells 
made  by  steamboats  when  under  way.    When  the 


ml 

I 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST     185 
bo«.i  was  being  built  in  the  famous  shipyards  at 
Ebzabeth.  on  the  Monongahela.  the  wheel  beams 
were  set  twenty  feet  farther  back  than  was  custom- 
My.    Converse  was  struck  with  this  unheard-of 
radicalism  in  design,  and  balked;  King  was  a  man 
given  to  few  words;  he  was  resolved  to  throw  con- 
vention to  the  winds  and  trust  his  judgment;  he 
refused  to  build  the  boat  on  other  lines.    Converse 
felt  compeUed  to  let  Chouteau  pass  on  the  ques- 
tion; m  time  the  laconic  answer  came:  "Let  King 
put  the  beams  where  he  pleases." 

Thus  the  craft  which  Converse  thought  a  mon- 
strosity became  known  far  and  wide  for  both  its 
design  and  its  speed.  In  1844  the  J.  M  White 
made  the  record  of  three  days,  twenty-three  hours, 
and  mne  minutes  between  New  Orleans  and  St 
i^uis.'  Of  course  the  secret  of  Billy  King's  suc- 
cess soon  became  known.  He  had  placed  his  pad- 
dle wheels  where  they  would  bite  into  the  sweU 

iBAg        Boat  Timb 

1I!J    i"'^*'^       »■'■    «"•    »«■■ 
1H4B    UuKnm  4  d      18 1,       _ 

1868    DaUT  4d.      ^^     _ 

18T0    R.E.U.  8d.     I8h.  Mm. 


If 


li 


1    < 


•i    < 


186  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COMMERCE 

produced  by  every  boat /ist  under  its  engines.  He 
had  transformed  what  had  been  a  handicap  into 
a  positive  asset.  It  is  said  that  he  attempted  to 
shield  his  prize  against  competition  by  destroying 
the  model  of  the  J.  M.  White,  as  well  as  to  have  re- 
fused large  offers  to  build  a  boat  that  would  beat 
her.  But  it  is  said  also  that  an  exhibition  model  of 
the  boat  was  a  cherished  possession  of  E.  M.  Stan- 
ton, Secretary  of  War,  and  that  it  hung  in  his  office 
during  Lincoln's  administration. 

The  steamboat  now  extended  its  service  to  the 
West  and  North.    The  ancient  fur  trade  with  the 
Indians  of  the  upper  Mississippi,  the  Missouri,  and 
the  Arkansas,  had  its  headquarters  at  St.  Louis, 
whence  the  notable  band  of  men  engaged  in  that 
trade  were  reaching  out  to  the  Rockies.    The  roU 
includes  Ashley.  Campbell.  Sublette.  Manuel  Lisa, 
Perkins,  Hempstead,  William  Clark.  Labadie,  the 
Chout»aus.  and  Menard  -  men  of  different  races 
and  colors  and  alike  only  in  their  energy,  bravery, 
and  initiative.    Through  them  the  village  of  St.' 
Louis  h^d  grown  to  a  population  of  four  thousand 
in  1819,  when  Major  Long's  expedition  passed  up 
the  Missouri  in  the  first  steamboat  to  ascend  that 
river.    This  boat,  the  Wemm  Enginee,,  was  built 
at  Pittsburgh  and  was  modeled  cua.i!ngly  for  its 


THE  STEAMPOAT  AND  THE  WEST    187 

work.    It  was  one  of  the  first  stem  wheelers  buat 
in  the  West;  and  the  saving  in  width  meant  much 
on  streams  having  such  narrow  channels  as  the  Mis- 
souri  and  the  Platte,  especially  when  barges  were 
to  be  towed.    Then,  too,  its  machineiy.  which  was 
covered  over  or  boarded  up.  was  shrouded  in  mys- 
tery.   A  fantastic  figure  represeuting  a  serpent's 
open  mouth  conUined  the  exhaust  pipe.    If  the 
New  Orleans  alarmed  the  population  of  the  Ohio 
Valley,  the  sensation  caused  among  the  red  children 
of  the  Missouri  at  the  sight  of  this  gigantic  snake 
belching  fire  and  smoke  must  have  thoroughly 
satisfied  the  whim  of  its  designer. 

The  admission  of  Missouri  to  statehood  and  the 
independence  of  Mexico  mark  the  beginning  of  real 
commercial  relations  between  St.  Louis  and  Santa 
F#.  In  1822  Captain  WiUiam  Becknell  organized 
the  first  wagon  train  which  left  the  Missouri  (at 
Franklin,  near  Independence)  for  the  long  danger- 
ous journey  to  the  Arkansas  and  on  to  Santa  Fe 
In  the  following  year  two  expeditions  set  fortii 
carrying  out  cottons  and  other  drygoods  w 
exchange  for  horses,  mules,  furs,  and  silver. 

Despite  the  handicaps  of  Indian  opposition  and 
Mexican  tariffs,  the  Santa  F6  trade  became  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  growth  of  St.  Louis  and  the 


r 
) 


I  i' 

i'   1! 


In) 


fi 


! 


188  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 
Missouri  River  steamboat  lines.  In  1825  the  path- 
way was  "surveyed"  from  Franklin  to  San  Fer- 
nando, then  in  Mexico.  This  SanU  F6  trade  grew 
from  fifteen  thousand  pounds  of  freight  in  1828  to 
nearly  half  a  million  pounds  twenty  years  later. 

By  1826  steamboat  traffic  up  the  Missouri  began 
to  assume  regularity.  The  navigation  was  danger- 
ous and  difficult  because  the  Missouri  never  kept 
even  an  approximately  consUnt  head  of  water.  In 
times  of  drought  it  became  very  shallow,  and  in 
times  of  flood  it  tore  its  wayward  course  open  in  any 
direcUon  it  chose.  "Of  all  variable  things  in  crea- 
tion," wrote  a  Western  editor,  "the  most  uncer- 
tain are  the  action  of  a  jury,  the  state  of  a  woman's 
mind,  and  the  condition  of  the  Missouri  River."  A 
further  handicap,  and  one  which  was  unknown  on 
the  Ohio  and  rare  on  the  Mississippi,  was  the  lack 
of  forests  to  supply  the  necessary  fuel.  The  Mis- 
souri, it  is  true,  had  its  cottonwoods,  but  in  a  green 
state  they  were  poor  fuel,  and  along  vast  stretches 
they  were  not  obtainable  in  any  quantity. 

The  steamboat  linked  St.  Louis  with  that  vital 
stretch  of  the  river  lying  between  the  mouth  of 
the  Kansas  and  the  mouth  of  the  Nebraska. 
Prom  this  region  the  great  Western  trail  ran  on 
to  California  and  Oregon.    In  the  early  thirties 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST    ISO 

Bonneville,  Walker.Kelley.andWyeth  successively 
e«ayed  this  Overland  Trail  by  wiy  of  the  Platte 
trough  the  South  Pass  of  the  Rockies  to  the 
Humboldt.  Snake,  and  Columbia  rivers.    From  In 
dependence  on  the  Missouri  this  famous  pathway 
led  to  Fort  Laramie,  a  distance  of  672  miles;  an- 
other 300-mile  climb  brought  the  traveler  through 
South  Pass;  and  so,  by  way  of  Fort  Bridger.  Salt 
Lake,  and  Sutter's  Fort,  to  San  Francisco.    The 
wute,  well  known  by  hundreds  of  Oregon  pioneers 
in  the  early  forties,  became  a  thoroughfare  in  the 
eager  days  of  the  Forty-Niners.' 

The  earliest  overland  stage  line  to  Great  Salt 
Laie  was  established  by  Hockaday  and  Liggett. 
After  the  founding  of  the  famous  Overland  Stage 
Company  by  Russell.  Majors,  and  Waddell  in  1858 
stages  were  soon  ascending  the  Platte  from  the 
steamboat  terminals  on  the  Missouri  and  making 
the  twelve  hundred  miles  from  St.  Joseph  to  Salt 
Lake  City  in  ten  days.    Stations  were  established 
from  ten  to  fifteen  miles  apart,  and  the  line  was 
soon  extended  on  to  Sacramento.    The  nineteen 
hundred  miles  from  St.  Joseph  to  Sacramento  were 
made  in  fifteen  days,  although  the  government 


'     M 


!i' 


180  THE  PATHS  OP  INLAND  COllBfEBCE 
contract  with  the  company  for  handling  United 
States  mail  allowed  nineteen  days.  A  host  of  em- 
ployees was  engaged  in  this  exciting  but  not  very  re- 
mmierative  enterprise — station-agents  and  helpers, 
drivers,  conductors  who  had  charge  of  passengers, 
in  addition  to  mail  and  express  and  road  agents 
who  acted  as  division  superintendents.  In  1862  the 
Overland  Route  was  taken  over  by  the  renowned 
Ben  Holliday,  who  operated  it  until  the  railway 
was  constructed  seven  years  later.  Freight  was 
hauled  by  the  same  company  in  wagons  known  as 
the  "J.  Murphy  wagons,"  which  were  made  in  St. 
Louis.  These  wagons  went  out  from  Leaveno'orth 
loaded  with  six  thousand  poimds  of  freight  each. 
A  train  usually  consisted  of  twenty-five  wagons  and 
was  known,  in  the  vernacular  of  the  plains,  as  a 
"bull-outfit";  the  drivers  were  "bull-whackers"; 
and  the  wagon  master  was  the  "bull-wagon  boss." 
The  old  story,  however,  was  repeated  again  here 
on  the  boundless  plains  of  the  West.  The  Western 
trails  streaming  out  from  the  terminus  of  steam- 
boat tra£Sc  between  Kansas  City  and  Omaha  had 
scarcely  time  to  become  well  known  before  the  rail- 
way conquerors  of  the  Atlantic  and  Great  Lakes 
regions  were  planning  the  conquest  of  the  greater 
plains  and  the  Rockies  beyond.    The  opening  of 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST  m 
the  Chines  porta  in  1844  tun.e<-  men's  mind,  « 
-everbeforetothePaoificcoasl.  The  acquIsiUon 
of  Oregon  within  a  few  year,  and  of  California  at 
the  close  of  the  Mexican  Wax  opened  the  way  for 
a  newspaper  and  congressional  discussion  as  to 
whether  the  first  railway  to  parallel  the  Sante  F6 
or  the  Overland  Trail  should  run  from  Memphis. 

IJ^T^'J^T^-    ^'••''"^d-goftheUnion 
Pacific  from  Omaha  westward  a«ured  the  future  of 

thataty.andit  was  soon  joined  to  Chicago  and  the 
East  by  several  lines  which  were  building  toward 
Chnton.  Rock  Island,  and  Burlington. 
But  the  construction  of  a  few  main  lines  of  rafl- 

way  across  the  continentcould  only  partially  satis- 
fy the  commercial  needs  of  the  West.    True  the 
overland  trade  was  at  once  transferred  to  the'rail- 
road.  but  the  enormous  equipment  of  stage  and  ex- 
press companies  previously  employed  in  westward 
overland  trade  was  now  devoted  to  joining  the  rail- 
way hues  with  the  vast  regions  to  the  north  and  the 
wuth.    The  rivers  of  the  West  could  not  alone  take 
««re  of  this  commerce  and  for  many  years  these 
great  transportation  companies  went  with  their 
rti^s  and  their  wagons  into  the  growing  Dakota 
and  Montana  trade  and  opened  up  direct  lines  of 
commmiication  to  the  nearest  railway.    On  the 


''I 


i  'i 


198  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  COMMERCE 

south  the  cattle  industry  of  Texas  came  northward 
into  touch  with  the  railways  of  Kansas.  Eventu- 
ally lateral  and  trunk  lines  covered  the  West  with 
their  network  of  lines  and  thus  obliterated  all 
rivahy  and  competition  by  providing  unmatched 
facilities  for  quick  transportation. 

In  the  last  days  previous  to  the  opening  of  the 
first  transcontinental  railway  line  a  unique  method 
of  rapid  transportation  for  mail  and  light  parcels 
was  established  when  the  famous  "Pony  Express" 
line  was  put  into  operation  between  St.  Joseph  and 
San  Francisco  ia  1360.  By  relays  of  horsemen, 
who  carried  pouches  not  exceeding  twenty  pounds 
in  weight,  the  time  was  cut  to  nine  days.  The  in- 
novation was  the  new  wonder  of  the  world  for  the 
time  being  and  led  to  an  outburst  on  the  part  of  the 
enthusiastic  editor  of  the  St.  Joseph  Free  Democrat 
that  deserves  reading  because  it  breathes  so  fully 
the  Western  spirit  of  exultant  conquest: 

Take  down  your  map  and  trace  the  footprints  of  our 
quadnipedantic  animal:  From  St.  Joseph,  on  the 
Missouri,  to  San  Francisco,  on  the  Golden  Horn  — 
two  thousand  miles  —  more  than  half  the  distance 
across  our  boundless  continent;  through  Kansas, 
through  Nebraska,  by  Fort  Kearney,  along  the  Platte, 
by  Fort  Laramie,  past  the  Buttes,  over  the  Mountains, 
through  the  narrow  passes  and  along  the  steep  defiles, 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST    IBS 

Utah.  Fort  Bridger,  Salt  Uke  City,  he  witches  Brig- 
ham  with  his  swift  pony-ship  -through  the  valleys, 
along  the  grassy  slopes,  into  the  snow,  into  the  sand 
faster  than  Thor's  Thialfi,  away  they  go.  rider  and 
horse -did  you  see  them?  They  are  in  California, 
leaping  over  lU  golden  sands,  treading  its  busy  streets 
The  courser  has  unrolled  to  us  the  great  Americaii 
panorama,  allowed  us  to  glance  at  the  home  of  one 
milhon  people,  and  has  put  a  girdle  around  the  earth 
m  forty  minutes.  Verily  the  riding  is  like  the  riding  of 
Jehu,  the  son  of  Nimshi  for  he  rideth  furiously.  Take 
out  your  watch.  We  are  eight  days  from  New  York, 
eighteen  from  London.    The  race  is  to  the  swift.  ■ 

The  lifetime  of  many  and  many  a  man  has 
covered  a  period  longer  than  that  interval  of  eighty- 
six  years  between  1783.  when  George  Washington 
had  his  vision  of  "the  vast  inland  navigation  of 
these  United  States, "  and  the  year  1869.  when  the 
two  divisions  of  the  Union  Pacific  were  joined  by 
a  golden  spike  at  Promontory  Point  in  Utah.  In 
point  of  time,  those  eighty-six  years  are  as  nothing; 
in  point  of  accomplishment,  they  stand  unparal- 
leled. When  Washington's  horse  splashed  across 
the  Youghiogheny  in  October,  1784.  the  boundary 
lines  of  the  United  States  were  guarded  with  aU 
the  jealousy  and  provincial  selfishness  of  Euro- 
pean kingdoms.  But  overnight,  so  to  speak,  these 

•Quoted  in  Inmu',  Tlu  Grnt  SaU  Late  Trail,  p.  in. 
» 


*  \  \ 


IM  THE  PATHS  OF  INLAND  OOlOfEBCE 

liinitatioiu  became  no  more  than  mere  geometrical 
expreuiona.  "Pennamite,"  "Erie,"  and  "Tde- 
do  "  war«  between  the  States,  suggesting  a  world  <rf 
bitterness  and  recrimination,  are  remembered  to- 
day, if  at  all,  only  by  the  cartoonist  and  the  play- 
wright. The  ancient  false  pride  in  mock  value*, 
so  cherished  in  Europe,  has  quite  departed  from  the 
provincial  areas  of  the  United  SUtes,  and  Ameri- 
cans can  fly  in  a  day,  unwittingly,  through  many 
States.  Problems  that  would  have  cost  Europe 
blood  are  settled  without  turmoil  in  the  solemn 
cloisters  of  that  American  "international  tribu- 
nal, "  the  Supreme  Court,  and  they  appear  only  as 
items  of  passing  interest  in  our  newspapers. 

In  unifying  the  nation  the  influence  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  has  been  priceless,  for  it  has  given  to 
Americans,  in  place  of  the  colonial  or  provincial 
mind,  a  continental  mind.  But  great  is  the  debt 
of  Americans  to  the  men  who  laid  the  foundations 
of  interstate  commerce.  No  antidote  served  so 
well  to  counteract  the  poison  of  clannish  rivaby  as 
did  their  enthusiasm  and  their  constructive  energy. 
These  men,  dreamers  and  promoters,  were  build- 
ing better  than  they  knew.  They  thought  to 
overcome  mountains,  obliterate  swamps,  conquer 
stormy  lakes,  master  great  rivers  andendlessplains; 


THE  STEAMBOAT  AND  THE  WEST  185 
but,  aa  their  labors  are  judged  today,  the  greater 
service  which  these  men  rendered  appears  in  its 
true  light.  They  stifled  piovincialism;  they  bat- 
tered down  Chinese  Walls  of  prejudice  and  separa- 
tism: they  reduced  the  aimless  rivalry  of  bickering 
provinces  to  a  businesslike  common  denominator; 
and,  perhaps  more  than  any  class  of  men,  they 
made  possible  the  wide-spreading  and  yet  united 
Republic  that  is  honored  and  loved  today. 


■i 


HI 


■: 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Luther    Rix^Ms    dJ^ '^'^'.^  ''°'^-    '°^ 

(I902-190S).  u  a  coUecUoa  of  monoKniDhi  of  ™J^' 

P^way  Of  migration,  the  Cumberland  E  ^^ 
Tff^J"  "  "5«"trated  afresh  in  Seymo^Dj^bS 

Sdi""" '""°!« ^wect'fortTe  ih^st'^irr 

V«te  detours,  which  some  wiU  make  aT«..„j  Ti. 


198 


BIBUOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


For  almost  every  phase  of  the  general  topic  booki, 
monographs,  pamphlets,  and  articles  are  to  be  found 
in  the  comers  of  any  great  library,  ranging  in  character 
from  such  productions  as  William  F.  Ganong's  A  Mono- 
graph  of  Hiatoric  Sites  in  the  Province  of  New  Brunmcick 
(Proceedings  and  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Canada,  Second  Series,  vol.  v,  1899)  which  treats  of  early 
travel  in  New  England  and  Canada,  or  St.  George  L. 
Sioussat's  Highway  Legislation  in  Maryland  and  its  In- 
fluence on  the  Economic  Development  of  the  State  (Mary- 
land Geological  Survey,  m,  1899)  treating  of  colonial 
road  making  and  legislation  thereon,  or  Elbert  J. 
Benton's  The  Wabash   Trade  Route  in  the  Develop. 
OT«n<  o/  the  Old  Northwest  (Johns  Hopkins   Univer- 
sity Studies  in  Historical  and  Political  Science,  vol.  xxi, 
1903)  and  Julius  Winden's  The  Influence  of  the  Erie 
Canal  upon  the  Population  along  its  Course  (Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin,  1901),  which  treat  of  the  economic 
and  political  influence  of  the  opening  of  inland  water 
routes,  to  volumes  of  a  more  popular  character  such  as 
Francis  W.Halsey's  TheOldNew  YorkFrontier  (1901), 
Frank  H.  Severance's  Old  Trails  on  the  Niagara  Fron- 
tier (1903)  for  the  North,  and  Charles  A.  Hanna'« 
The  Wilderness  TrdU,  »  vols.  (1911),  and  Thomas 
Speed's  The  Wilderness  Road  (The  Filson  Club  Pub- 
lications, vol.  n,  1886)  for  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and 
Kentucky.     The  value  of  Banna's  work  deserves 
special  mention. 

For  the  early  phases  of  inland  navigation  John 
Pickell's  A  New  Chapter  in  the  Early  Life  of  Washing- 
ton (1856),  is  an  excellent  work  of  the  old-fashioned 
type,  while  in  Herbert  B.  Adams's  Maryland's  Influence 
upon  Land  Cessions  to  the  United  StaUs  (Johns  Hopkine 


BIBUOGBAPHICAL  NOTE  im 

S  dt  r*"  '•  ^  '  """ter-hand  pays  Waahington 
his  due  for  onginating  plans  of  trans-AlIeghany  ^. 
d|mty;thu.  likewise  is  the  theme  of  Archfr  B   Hol- 

pnnted  Washington's  Diary  of  September,  1784.  con- 
tamng  the  first  and  unexpurgated  draft  of  his  classic 
fetter  to  Hamsou  of  that  year.  The  publications  of 
tte  various  «KMeties  for  internal  improvement  and 
^te  boards  of  control  andafew  books,  such  as  Turner 
Camacs  fa^  „„d  Arguments  Respecting  the  Great 
Vtauy  of  an  Extensile  Plan  of  Inland  NamgationZ 

of  the  difficulties  and  the  ideals  of  the  first  great  Ameri- 
ff^^T!^"      "'^■J'^'^°°"""*^-   ElkanahWaUon's 

™i  ?'  mT'*  """==""»"«"'  due  to  lapses  of 
memory,  should  be  specially  remarked 

For  the  rise  and  progress  of  turnpike  building  one 
Statistics  of  Plank  Roads  (1852).  a  reliable  book  by  a 
Zlrr,' •■■•«  ^^  Cumberland  (National)  Road  h.^ 
S.  Young  in  A  PolUvcal  and  Constitutional  Study  of  the 

C»™Wfa„dJfo^  (1904),  while  the  social  and  pe'rsond 
ade  IS  mteresting^  treated  in  county  history  style  in 
Thomas  B.  Searighl/.  The  Old  Pike  (1894).    MotorisU 

fi  ^*  ^'  °'  ^"1*°°  "  ^-  ^-  Dickinson's  Robert 
l'^:Emnecr  and  AHiH:  His  Life  and  Works  (1013), 
whde  m  Ahce  Cra^r  Sutcliffe'a  Robert  Fulton  and  tL 


i 


aoo  BIBUOGSAFHICAL  NOTE 

"  CUrmotU"  (1900),  the  more  intimate  picture  of  a  fam- 
ily biognphy  is  given.  For  the  controversy  concerning 
the  Fulton-Livingston  monopoly,  note  W.  A.  Duer's^ 
Courie  of  Lectures  on  CotulUuHonal  Jurisprudeitce  and 
his  pamphlets  addressed  to  Cadwallader  D.  Colden. 
The  life  of  that  stranger  to  success,  the  forlorn  John 
Fitch,  was  written  sympathetically  and  after  assiduous 
research  by  Thompson  Westcott  in  his  Life  of  John 
FUch  the  InverUor  of  the  Steamhoat  (1858).  For  the 
pamphlet  war  between  Fitch  and  Eumsey  see  Alli- 
bone's  Dictionaiy. 

The  Great  Lakes  have  not  been  adequately  treated. 
E.  Channing  and  M.  F.  Lansing's  The  Story  of  the  Great 
Lavff  (1909)  is  reliable  but  deals  very  largely  with  the 
tn.-ne  history  covered  by  the  works  of  Farkman.  J.  O. 
Curwood's  The  Great  Lakes  (1909)  is  stereotyped  in  its 
scope  but  has  certain  chapters  of  inteiest  to  students 
of  commercial  development,  as  has  also  The  Story  of 
the  Great  Lakes.  The  vast  bulk  of  material  of  value  on 
the  subject  lies  in  the  publications  of  the  New  York, 
Buffalo,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  and  Chicago 
Historical  Societies,  whose  lists  should  be  consulted. 
Theje  publications  also  give  much  data  on  the  Mis- 
ussippi  Biver  and  western  commercial  development. 
S.  L.  Clemens's  Life  on  the  Mississippi  (in  his  Writings, 
vol.  DC,  1869-1900)  is  invaluable  for  its  graphic  pictures 
of  steamboating  in  the  heyday  of  river  traffic.  A.  B. 
Hulbert's  Watencays  of  Western  Expansion  {Historio 
Highways,  vol.  ix,  1903)  and  The  Ohio  River  (1906)  give 
chapters  on  commerce  and  transportation.  For  the  be- 
pniungs  of  traffic  into  the  Far  West,  H.  Inman's  The 
Old  Santa  Fi  TraU  (1897)  and  The  Great  SaU  Lake 
Trail  (1914)  may  be  consulted,  together  with  the  pub- 


BIBLIOGIIAPHICAL  NOTE  «oi 

lications  of  the  various  state  historical  societies  of  the 
trans-Mississippi  States. 

Various  bibliographies  on  this  general  subject  have 
been  issued  by  the  Library  of  Congress.  Seymour 
Dunbar  gives  a  good  bibliography  in  his  A  Bitlory  €^ 
Travd  in  America,  4  vds.  (1915).  The  student  will  find 
quantities  of  material  in  books  of  travel,  in  which  con- 
nection he  would  do  well  to  consult  Solon  J.  Buck's 
Travel  and  Deecription,  1766-186S  (lainou  State  Hit- 
torical  LStrary  CMtJione.  vol.  DC,  1914). 


li 


INDEX 


Adanu,   J.   Q.,   and   interna] 

improTCmenU,  14S 
Albany,  Old  Bay  Path  to,  it; 

road  to  Baltimore,  58;  CUr- 

monl'i  voyage  to,  lis 
Alexandria  (Va.),  rival  of  New 

York  City,  1S7 
AUegfaanies,  pathways  acrou, 

17-19,  lis  et  leq. 
Allegheny    Portage    Railway, 

1S\ 
Ameriean,  New  York,  quoted, 

18* 
Appalachian  Mountaini,  path- 
way! acroH,  15-tl 
Arkaniaa,   influence   of  river 

trade  on,  180 
"Army"   plan   of  occupying 

We«t,4  "    ' 

Aahley,  fur  trader,  I8« 
Audubon,  J.  J.,  description  of 

barge  journey,  72-TS 

Baily,  Francis,  journey  in 
United  States  (17l)e-S7), 
81-98;  quoted,  9(>-«l 

Balcony  Falls,  toail  between 
J«uws  and  Great  Kanawha 
Rivers  at.  19 

Baltimore,  road  to  Albany, 
(8;  part  in  transportation 
development,  138-37.  143- 
131 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad, 
138(  Washington's  vision 
realised  by,  10;  follows  old 
trail,  18, 29;  state  appropria- 
tion, 148;  contest  with  canal 


company.    130-31;   reaches 
Ohio,  131,  171 
Baltimore-Frederick  Turnpike^ 

Baltimore-Reisterstown  Turn- 
pike, 38-39.  143 
Baring  Brothers  contribute  to 

canal  work,  103 
Bay  Path,  let  Old  Bay  Path 

Becknell,  Captain  William, 
organises  first  wagon  train 
for  Sante  F4.  187 

Bedford.  Fort,  established.  30 

Bixby.  Captain,  at  Hat  Island, 
181 

Black  Hawk  War  (18St),  l«t 

Bonneville.  Captain  B.  L.  E., 
on  Overland  Trail,  189 

"Bonnyclabber  Country,"  86, 
87 

Boone,  Daniel,  19 

Bouquet,  Colonel  Henry,  criti- 
cises Washington,  30 

Boston  and  Albany  Railroad, 
13,  18 

Boulton  and  Watt  of  Birming- 
ham, Fulton  uses  engine  <S, 
110, 118 

Braddock's  Road,  31 

Brissot,  French  traveler  in 
America,  81,  83 

Broad  River,  trail  on,  19 

Brown,  Charles,  builds  hull  of 
Cltnumt,  118 

Brown,  George,  and  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  Railroad,  149 

Brownsville  (PennO.growth  of, 
SO 


203 


804 


INDEX 


i 


Bryu,  Gny,  of  Philadelphi*, 

M 
Buffftlo,  demftnd  for  m«miu  of 

tmuporUtioD,     IM,     170; 

bubor  improTemeot,    IM; 

growth,  171 
Ba9*lo-UUca  Cuul.  IM;  m 

alto  Erie  CaasI 
Bunting,  "Red."  itagecoacb 

driver,  123 
Burt,  ^  W.  A.,  difcoven  iron 

ore  in  Michigan.  IM-M 

Calhoun,  J.  C,  and  internal 

improvementi,  U5 
California,    weatem   trail   to, 

188;  acquisition  of,  191 
Campbell,  fur  trader,  18< 
Canali,  early  project*,  S7-S8; 
inadequacy  of,  1B7;  In  the 
Weit,  157  •(  ««.;  m  alto 
Cheiapeake  and  Ohio  Canal, 
Erie  Canal,  Welland  Canal 
CaUkill  Turnpike,  1« 
Ubron   de    Blainnlle   aenda 
Engliah  tradera  from  Ohio 
country,  8A-86 
Cbarleiton  (S.  C),  traili  to 

Tenneaiee  from.  It 
Charleston  (Welliburg)  made 

port  of  entry,  77 
CkartoUi  Duniai  (iteamboat), 

lot,  110 
Cbastcllux,      Chevalier      de, 

Waahington'i  letter  tc  t 
Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal, 
Washington's  vision  realised 
in,  10;  plan  for,  lat.  U9, 
1**;  Companjr  formed,  I4S; 
engineering  difficulties,  U6; 
state      subscription,      148; 
contest  with  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Bailroad,  ISO-Sl 
Chesapeake    and    0'  io    Hail- 
road,       IS:      Wssiiington's 
vision  realised  in,   10;  fol- 
lows old  route,  ISi 
Chicago,  harbor  improvement, 
Kl.    16t;    canal    terminal. 


16»i  growth.  1«»-«S.  nt; 
demand  for  means  of  tnuis> 
portation,  IM,  170;  con- 
vention discusses  rivers  and 
harbors  (18M),  ISO;  Illinois 
Central  Bailroad  to,  170 
Chickasaw  Trail,  ST 
Chillicothe  (C),  grant  to  Zan* 

at,  47 
China,  influence  on  West  of 

opening  ports,  ISl 
Chiswell,     Fort,     "  Warrior's 

Path"  from,  IS 
Choctaw  Trail,  87 
Chouteau,  Bobert,  184 
Cincinnati,  founded,  88;  ship- 
building, 78, 180;  made  port 
of  entry,  77;  <m  alto  Colum- 
bia 
Clark,  William,  fur  trader,  188 
Clay,    Henry,    and    internal 
improvements,  US;  on  West- 
ern canal  project,  lU 
Clermont  (steamboat),  78, 113- 

114 
Cleveland,  demand  for  means 
of  transportation,  184,  170; 
harbor  improvement,    169; 
growth.  178 
Clinton.   DeWitt.      Mewurial 
(1818).  127;  and  Ohio  and 
Miami  canals.  Its 
Columbia    (Cincinnati),    port 
of  entry,  74,  77;  Baily  at, 
92;  tee  alto  Cincinnati 
Comet  (steamboat),  78 
Conemaugh  River,  Kittanning 

Trail  follows,  17 
Congress,    Fitch   appeals   to, 
106;  appropriation  for  canal 
survejr,  148 
Connecticut  Path,  16 
Connecticut   River,   Old   Bay 

Path,  18 
Connellsville  (Penn.),  grosrth 

of.  26 
Converse,  J.  H.,  184 
Cooper,  Peter,  builds 
Tom  Thumb,  180 


INDEX 


fl05 


Cotton,  iaflntnee  on  river 
■UTigation,  180 

Cowpenj,  docription  of  in- 
haUtiotj,  tt-U 

Crmwford,  >gent  for  Wuhing- 
ton,  letter  to,  t 

Crismao,  JesM,  owner  of  Hit  or 
Miu.  140 

Cnmberbuid  (Md.),  esitern 
terminiu  of  CumberUnd 
Road, lis 

Cumberland  Gap,  "Warrior's 
Path"  througn,  18;  railroad 
tbrough,  20 

Cumberland  Road,  ISO;  Wash- 
ington's vision  realized  in, 
10;  building  authorized,  114- 
115;  importance,  116;  plan, 
II8-I0;  route,  110-20;  build- 
ing of,  120-tl:  cost,  lil; 
stage  lines,  lM-23;  freight 
traffic,  I2S-t4;  extension  to 
Missouri,  IM;  Baltimore 
and,  14S-44;  bibliography, 
IM 

Day,  Shnrman,  quoted,  140 
Deane,  Silas,  plan  for  payment 
of  Bevolutionary  War  debt, 
«-S 
Delaware  Water  Gap,  IT 
Delta  (La.),  changed  by  Missis- 

•ippi  Kiver,  177 
Detroit,    Washington    marks 
out  commercial  lines  to,  9; 
port  of  entry,  74;  demand 
for  transportation  facilities, 
104;  harbor,  160;  growth,  172 
Dtttoit  (lake  steamer),  MO 
Dickens,  Charles,  cited,   100; 
describes    canal  boat  jour- 
ney, 140-41;  describes  aerial 
railway,  141-42 
Doddridge,  Nottt,  quoted,  27- 

(8 
Doolittle,     Sylvester,     builds 

Vandalia,  1S8 
Duaiu  (ship),  78-77 
Duquene,  Fort,  2S,  28,  to 


Enttrpriu  (steamboat),  70 
"Era  of  Good  Feeling,"  60 
Erie  (Penn.),  as  place  of  em- 
barkation, U;  port  of  entry, 
74  1-7 

Erie  Canal,  SS,  87,  S8,  118-17: 
Washington  foresees,  0,  12; 
work  begun  (1817),  38,  128; 
Hawley  writes  challenge  to 
New  York  concerning,  115; 
state  enterprise,  118,  124- 
128,  136;  Hawley's  original 
plan,  119;  building  of,  129- 
131:  completion,  132;  locks 
enlarged,  169 

Erie  Railroad,  153;  Washing- 
ton forecasts,  9-10;  follows 
Indian  trade  route,  17 

"Erie"  war,  194 

Evans,  Oliver,  and  steam 
propelled  wagon,  102-03 

Everett,  Edward,  quoted,  12- 
13 

Fallen  Timber,  battle  of,  67 

Ferries,  46-47 

Fink,  Mike,  "the  Snag,"  64: 
"Snapping  Turtle,"  64 

Fitch,  John,  steamboat  ex- 
periments, 12,  101-02,  103- 
105;  petition  to  Congress, 
106-07;  obtains  monopoly 
from  States,  106;  Fulton 
and,  108 

Forbes,  General  John,  cap- 
tures Fort  Duquesne,  26; 
breaks  army  road,  50 

Forman,  Joshua,  bill  for  Erie 
Canal  project,  124 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  on  mak- 
ing ^rivers  navigable,  30; 
and  international  boundary 
line,  164 

Frederick  (Md.).  trail  from,  18 

Free  Democratt  St.  Joseph, 
quoted,  192-93 

Freeland,  H.,  account  of  the 
Clermont,  113-14 

French  aa  commercial  rivals,  20 


AM 


INDEX 


Fultoa.  Bobtrt.  stMaboat  ei- 
nriment*.  It,  107-14;  and 
LinnntoB.  108-M;  on  Erie 
CmuT  committee,  lU;  bib- 
uognpby,  IM 

Fnr  trade,  French  and,  M; 
witb  lUinoia  country,  60; 
beadquarten  at  St.  Louit, 
IM 

GaUatia.  Albert,  Mheme  of 
internal  improvementj,  114 

Geddee,  Jamei,  engineer,  lU 

Gibboni.  Thomai,  iteamboat 
competitor  of  Ogden,  ISl 

Great  Britain,  iteamboat  ei- 
perimenti  in,  I0»;  Fulton 
import!  engine  from.   111, 

Great  Kanawba  River,  Waah- 
ington  outline!  route  by 
way  of,  10;  ai  trade  route.  111 

Great  Lakei,  Waahington'i 
vuion  concerning,  8;  Aench 
on,  t«;  navigabon  of,  IM 
litq. 

Great  Headowi,  WaaUngton 
on,  8;  NemacoUn't  Path  by, 
18 

"Great  Trail,"  m 

Onai  WiMltrn  (lake  ateamer), 
168 

Greenaburg  (Penn.),  growth  of, 

Greenville,  Treaty  of,  67 

Hamilton  County  (O.)  or- 
ganiaed,  68 

Bard  Times  (Hiai.),  location 
changed  by  Miaiiuippi 
River,  177 

Hawkina,  John,  Shrevn  com- 
pared with,  175 

Hawley,  Jeese,  and  Erio  v^anal, 
116. 119 

Haiard,  of  Pennsylvania,  81; 
and  Lebigh  coal,  40 

Hempstead,  fur  toader,  186 

fisnrtp  C<a|f  (aleamboat),  IM 


SsnmlM  Oaka  freighter),  IW 
Heydt,  Jost,  leads  imaugrwta 

south,  48 
"Highland  Trail,"  17,  tO 
Hit  at  Min  (canal  boat),  140 
Hockaday  and  Liggett  csUblisb 
stage    line    to    Great    Salt 
Lake,  188 
HoUiday,  Ben,  and  OverUnd 

Route,  180 
Horses,  pack,  81;  in  "Bonny- 
clabber  Country,  "86 
Hough,  Emerson,  The  Pminf 
of  the  Fnntur,  cited,   188 
(note) 
Houghton,  Douglass,  discovers 

copper  in  Michigan.  168 
Hudson    River,     Washington 
foresees   joining    to    Great 
Lakes,   8;   pathway  along, 
18;  m<  o/m  Erie  Canal 

Illinois,  trade  with,  66;  growth 
of  population,  116,  186: 
canal  fever,  167,  161;  raU- 
way  projects.  171;  influenoe 
of  river  trade  on.  180 

lUinou  (lake  steamer),  168 

I  linoia  Central  Railroad,  170 

Illinois-Michigan  Canal.  187- 
148.  161.  167.  168 

Illinois  River.  French  on,  80 

Independence  (Mo.),  Overland 
Trail  from,  188 

Indiana,  migration  to,  67; 
growth  of  population,  lie. 
1A6;  canal  enthusiasm,  161- 
railway  projects.  171;  in- 
Suence  of  river  trade  on.  180 

Induns.  trails.  14.  18;  pack- 
horae  trade  with.  81.  87 

Ingles  ferry.  47 

Iowa,  influence  of  river  trade 
on.  180 

/.  Jf.  White  (river  boat),  184, 

188.  186 
iames-Kanawha  Turnpike,  10 


INDEX 


JuMf  BItw,  IT!  WuUnctaa'a 

»i»io«  r«(ardiii(,  8.  10;  u 

tnd*  roats,  ID 
JtCcnoB,   ThomH.   plu   for 

letUement  of  West,  4 
Juni  But,  lUfCcoach  Una,  lit 
'luiau     Biver.     KitUnoing 

TtmI  along,  17,  ISt 

EecTer,  Captain,  buildiateam- 
boat  on  Ohio,  78 

Kent  Chancellor,  and  Erie 
Canal,  U7,  1«8 

Kentucky,  wagon  road  con- 
structed to,  49-SO;  misra- 
tion  to,  87  * 

•""K-    Bjj'y.  bnilder  of    the 

J.  M.  ITkilt,  184 
Kittanning  Trail,  17.  U 
Kaoxville      (Tenn.),       Bailr 

reachee.  S8 

Labadie,  fur  trader,  188 
Lake  Shore  Railroad,  170,  171 
Lanca.ter  (O.),  grant  to  Zane 

at,  47 
Lancaater  Turnpike,  88,  88-88 
Laramie,  Fort,  Overland  TraU 

to,  188 
Lee,  Arthur,  on  eoet  of  trani- 

porUtion  (1784),  68 
Lee,  Henry,  Waehington  writee 

to,  • 
Lehigh  Coal  and  Navigation 

Company,  89,  43 
Lehigh  Coal  Company,  42-48 
Lehigh  Navigation  Company, 

Lewis  and  Clark  expedition,  U 

Liggett  and  HoUiday  run  itage 
to  Salt  Lake,  188 

Ugonier  (Penn.),  growth  of,  M 

Ligonier,  Fort.  80 

Lisa,  Manual,  fur  trader,  IS8 

Livingeton,  B.  B..  and  Fulton. 
108-11;  on  Erie  Canal  com- 
mittee, 188 

Long,  Major,  expedition  up 
Muaoun  Biver,  186 


MT 


I«<iUm«  eotton  •xporti.  180 
Laamana  ef  MaruUa  (ehip).  77 
Louiaiana  Purchase,  78.  77 
Louisville.     imporUnce     and 

growth,  68-68;  as  river  port. 

78-74,  77;  shipbuUdingTlSO 
Ludlow,  actor,  sings  ThtHunt- 

tri  tf  Kentucky,  68-68 

Mackinaw    Uand,    port    o( 

entry.  74 
Marietta  (O.),  founded,  87-68; 

shipbuilding,  78;  as  port  of 

entry,  77 
Maryland.    Washington    out- 

unes   trade   routes  for,    10; 

roads.  4»,  88.  88-S9;  cotton 

pown  in,   85;   Cumberland 

Boad.  119;  canals.  186,  144; 

Canal     Company     formed, 

148;  >n  ado  Baltimore 
Massac.   Fort   (III.),   port  of 

entry.  74,  78.  77;  Baily  at, 

Massachusetts.  Old  Bay  Path. 
16;  roads.  44.  »4-«8 

Mauch  Chunk  (Penn.).  coal 
from.  43 

Maynard  and  Morrison,  trade 
with  Illinois.  66 

Menard,  fur  trader,  186 

Mercer  quoted,  148 

Miak-i  Canal,  189 

Michigan,  growth  of  popula- 
tion, 116,  186;  plan  for  Erie 
Lanal  funds  from  sale  of 
land  in,  117,  128;  develop- 
ment, 164;  "Toledo  War?" 
164-68;  minerals,  168 

MKhigan  (lake  steamer).  168 

Milwaukee,  demand  for  trans- 
portation facilities.  164;  har- 
bor improvement.  169 

Minnesota,  development,  164 

^*T''^  New  York,  prints 
r*»  Huntert  cf  Kenlaetf,  62 

Mississippi  cotton  exports,  180 

Miasiuippi  Biver,  Washing- 
ton •  vision  of  navigation  ont 


aos 


INDEX 


lUiUbttmttr—ConHnt^ 
II:  Frtaek  on.  tO;  iapor- 
Une*    to    coBOKR*,    IM; 
eintl  to  connect  with  Lake 
Michi(u,  Kl,  IMi  UTign- 
tion.  17«  1  Mf-i  ccoentiKi- 
tiM,  177,  18S 
Miuoori.    influence   of   river 
trade  oo.  IM;  admitted  a< 
State,  187 
Uioonri  River,  navifatioa  on, 

IM,  187,  188 
Hohawk  River,  route  throufh 

Appalachiane.  19 
Mohawk  Trail,  18 
Mohawk  Turnpike,  18 
Mohawk  Valley,  Waehincton 

and,  7 
MonoHicMa  tanut  (ihip),  78 
Monroe,  Jamea,  Fulton  write* 
to,   107,   110,   lit;  recom- 
menda  conireeeional  aid  for 
canab,  I4S 
Montreal,    fura    broufht    to, 
M;  rival  of  New  York  City, 
lU,  1(8 
Moody,   John.    r*»   Railroad 

BuMtn,  cited,  187  (note) 
Morey,  Samuel,   inventor  of 
•tem-wheder,  104.  108,  110 
Moriantown  (Penn.),  growth 

of,  18 
Morrii,  Gouverneur,  of  New 
York,  31,  88 

Naihville  (Tenn.),  traila  to,  IS 
Natchez  (Miu.),  Baily  at,  88, 

87 
Natohea  Trace,  88 
National,  lUgecoach  line.  IH 
Nemacolin  Path,  18,  tS 
Newberry,  Oliver,  of  Detroit, 

builds  Miekiian,  188 
New  Madrid,  Baily  at,  88 
New  Orleani,  made  open  port, 

78;  Baily  at,  88:  ateamboat 

tonnage  of  (1848),  181 
Sew  OrUatu  (ateamboat),  180. 

181, 187 


New  York  (SUto).  WaaUag- 
ton  foreeni  communication 
linea  of.  8;  canal  n«j«el. 
88-88;  roada,  44, 88;  Livjnr 
•ton  obtain!  a  team  boat 
monopoly.   108;  ateamboat 
grant  to  Livingiton.  Rooaa- 
velt  and  Fulton.  Ill;  rail- 
roada.    181.    188;   jm   aba 
Erie  Canal 
New  York  Central  Railroad. 
188;    Washington   and.    8; 
follow!  Mohawk  Trail.  18. 17 
New  York  City.  Baily  at.  84; 
Erie  Canal  and,  1(8.  1(8; 
tonnage  compared  to  that 
of  river  porta,  181 
Niagara.  French  at.  (8 
Niofora  (ateamboat).  188 
Nickel  Plato  Railroad,  17 
Northwaat,  Deane'a  plan  for. 
('8;    navigation    of    Great 
Lakes.  154  af  ««;,;  immigra> 
tion  to.  187-88 

Ogden,  Aaron.  t<.  Gibbon,  18t 
Ohio,  migration  to,  87;  growth 
of  population.  118,  188;  and 
Cumberiand  Road,  117; 
canala,  187-80;  admitted  aa 
SUte  (180(),  158;  railroadi, 
171;  influence  of  river  trade 
on.  180 
Ohio  and  Lake  Erie  Company, 
145  ' 

Ohio  Canal.  157,  158,  188, 188 
Ohio  River,  Washington  and, 
8,  1(;  access  of  FWnch  and* 
English    to,    15;    value    of 
cargoes  on  (1800),  74;  Bal- 
timore and  Ohio  Railroad 
reaches    (1858),    151,    188; 
navigation,  180 
Old  Bay  Path,  15,  18 
Ontario  (steamboat).  156 
Orange.    Fort    (Albany).    18; 

MS  aUo  Albany 
Ordinance  of  1787. 170 
Oregon,  western  trail  to.  188; 


INDEX 


0>y    ■anHnwi 

•Btet  of  acqointioa  ea  tnuu- 

PorUtion,  Itl 
ft*«iu  (•twrnboat),  7» 
OrnubM,  ol  CoDneetieat. 

BukMiUsmboat  model,  104 
Ottawa  (IIJ.),  canal  termiiial, 

16S 
Overland  SUn  Company,  IW 
Owlasd  Trul,  18a,  it] 

'^J>y«  (Tonn.),  aa  riw  port. 

Pedeo  River,  17 
"Pennamitc"  war,  104 
FenujriTania,  Waahington 
and   tranaportation    in,    B, 
10-11;  canala,  93-3S,   13<; 
roada,  M,  44,  45,  4S-4a,  20, 
»8-»4,     110-IU;     "Bonny- 
clabber  Country,"  M,  gr- 
and Great  Lakea,  138;  rail- 
way!, IJl 
Pennsylvania        Canal,     13»; 
Waihington     forecaiti,     «■ 
route,  ISO;  engineering 
achievement,  130-40 
Penuylvania    RaUroad,    14t, 
1»S;  WatUnaton  and.  0-10; 
foUowa    Indian    trail,    <S- 
incorporated      (1843),  IJI; 
reachea  Obio  Hiver,  171 
Perkins,  fur  trader,  lg« 
Philadelphia,  roada  to,  48-40; 
meeting  to  protest  against 
monoiMly      of      Lancaster 
Turnpike,  34;  Baily  at,  84; 

i,Jfi'^^?'J?'^  ''•"''  City,  137 
'^huadelphia    and     Lancaster 

Turnpike  Road   Company, 

33—34 
Philadelphia  Road,  48 
Pickering  plan   of  occuprins 

West,  4  • 

nke.  Captain  Z.  M.,  03 
Ptoiusr,  stagecoach  line,  122 
PtonMr  (steamboat),  130 
Ktt,  Port,  88 
Pittsburgh,   growth,    t»,    67; 


Ijada  with.  ts-M,  9»-m.  73; 
ahipbuildiog,    73;    port    of 
-"f?.  ""■■  "•ily  reaches.  88 
Piatt,  Judge,  and  Erie  CanaL 
1*3,  irf  ^^ 

Pontiac's  Rebellion.  t«-(T,  M 
"Pony  Express."  lot 
Potomac  Canal  Company,  141 
Potomac  Company.  81-33, 138 
Potomac  River,  Washington's 
vuion  regarding,  8, 10;  com- 
merce on,  17-18 
PraifM  (steamboat),  188 
Presq'  Isle  (Erie)  recommended 
as  place  of  embarkation,  S3 
Pneea  in  1800,  08 
Putnam,  General    Rufus,  ad- 
vocates Pickering  plan,  3-4 

Quebec  furs  brought  to,  80 
Qutn   <jf  Ik,    Wut    (British 
steamer),  188 

Bulroads.  134  et  nf.;  m  oIm 
names  of  railroads 

Revolutionary  War,  plans  for 
pavment  of  debt  of,  8-3 

Khodea,  Mayor  of  Philadel- 
phia, 80 

Rideau  canal  system,  ISO 

Rivers  and  harbors,  govern- 
ment policy  of  improvement, 

}?i —,*"'''"«''     convention 
(184S),  ISO 

Roads,  44  tl  tKi.,  83;  tolls,  SO- 
SO;  m  aim  Cumberland 
Road 

Robinson,  Moncure,  130-40 

Boosovelt,  Theodore,  quoted, 
17S 

Bumsey,  James,  18;  general 
manager  of  Potomac  Com- 
pany, 38;  steamboat  experi- 
ments. 101.  108,  103,  lOS; 
Virginia  grants  monopoly 
to,  lOS:  Fulton  and,  108 

Russell,  Majors,  and  Waddel! 
found  Overland  Stage  Com- 
pany, 180 


<10  INDEX 


RnUiarfordtaa  Tnil,  I» 

SteruMBto,  lUga  line  to,  ISO 

Bt  Clair  (brig),  T« 

St.  JoMpn  (Mo.),  ttage  lino 
from,  1811 

St.  Lawrence  canal  ayitem,  160 

St.  Louif,  ■hipbuilding,  180; 
beadquarten  for  fur  trade, 
I8«;  trade  with  SanU  Ft, 
187 

St.  Marjr'a  River  Sliip  Canal, 
1«4,  167,  168 

Salt  Lake  City, utage  lineto,  ISO 

Sanuon  (lake  freigoter),  160 

Sandusky,  port  of  entry,  74 

San  Francisco,  Overland  Trail 
to,  180 

San  Lorenio,  Treaty  of,  7& 

Santa  Ft,  trade  with,  187 

Santa  Ft  Trail,  101 

"Sapphire  Country,**  10,  IffS 

Saturdajf  Adttrtuer,  Liver- 
pool, on  the  Duane,  76*77 

Schoph,  J.  D.,  crosses  moun- 
tains in  chaise,  66 

Schuylkill-Susquehanna  Canal, 
M 

Searight  describes  freight 
wagons  on  Cumberland 
Hoad.  It8-f4 

Seller*,  Captain  Isaiah,  18« 

Sbreve,  Henry,  builds  double- 
decked  steamboat,  70;  in- 
vents flat-bottomed  steam- 
boat, 17« 

Society  for  Promoting  the 
Improvement  of  Roads  and 
Inland  Navigation,  81,  84- 
8i,  SO,  <4 

South,  trade  with,  66 ;  demands 
for  commerce,  174 

Soullurn  BMt  (steamboat), 
181 

Southern  Chesapeake  and  Ohio 
Railroad,  t» 

Southern  Railway,  10 

Stanton,  E.  H.,  has  model  of 
/.  M.  WkiU.  186 


Stephenson,  Robert,  on  Peaa- 

sylvania  Canal,  140 
Stevens,  E.  A.,  invents  twin- 
screw  propeller.  104 
Sublette,  fur  trader,  186 
SiiUana  (steamboat),  181 
Superior  (steamboat),  156, 167 
Superior,    Lake,    copper    and 
iron    deposits    near,     164; 
commerce  from,  166-67 
Susquehanna     River,     Wash- 
ington foresees  joining  to 
West,  8 


Taverns,  «»-<7,  88-88 

Taylor,  Acting-Governor  of 
New  York,  and  Erie  Canal, 
127,  lis 

Tennessee,  trails  to,  10;  cotton 
exports,  180 

Tennessee  Path,  Baily  on,  06 

Thackeray,  W.  M.,  quoted,  185 

tlwmas,  P.  £.,  and  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  Railroad,  140 

Thompson,  Chief  Justice  of 
New  York,  and  Erie  Canal. 
1«7 

Toledo  ^0.).  demand  for  trans- 
portation facilities,  164 

"Toledo  War,"  164-66,  104 

Tom  Tkumi,  Peter  Cooper's 
engine,  ISO 

Transportation,  Conestoga 
wagons,  67-08,  86;  steam- 
boats, 100  et  ttq.i  stage- 
coaches, Itt;  "1.  Murpny 
wagons,'*  100;  tt  alto 
Canals,  Ferries,  Horsasb 
Railroads,  Roads 

Tupper,  General  Benjamin, 
104 

Twain,  Mark,  cited.  181 

Tyson,  Jonathan,  68 

Unaka   Mountains,    sss  Alle- 

ghaniea 
Union  Canal,  86.  180.  181;  m 

alto  Pennsylvaoia  Canal 


INDEX 


Ml 


Union  Padfie  Bailroad,   lai 

Its 
Uniontown  (Penn.),  growth  of. 

M 

Vandalia  (lake  fieighter).  I«8 
Vtnniu  (•teamboat),  78 
Virginia.  Waahington'a  viiion 
rf  trada  routei  for,  10;  In- 
dian trailj,  18;  roada.  44-4J. 
40.    IID;   negroei.   SS;   to- 
bacco, sa-,  canala.  isa,  144 
Tininia     Road     (Braddock'a 

Walt-in-the-Waltr   (steam- 
boat), 132,  ISO,  167,  172 
"  Warrior'a  Patli, "  19,  20 
Waihington  (D.  C),  Baily  at. 

84,  as-aa 

WaihiiiftoH,  firat  double- 
decked  itcamboat,  7»,  175 
Washington,  Fort,  68 
Waahington.  George,  viiion  of 
inland  navigation,  4  tl  teq., 
IKS;  doctrine  of  expansion, 
«;  journer  to  West,  7-9; 
letter  to  Harrison,  10,  43, 
U7,  127;  Journal,  10;  and 
nverimprovement.  31 ;  presi- 
dent of  Potomac  Company. 
32;  and  army  roads.  tO; 
and  crop  rotation,  8  j ;  proph- 
ecy regarding  millstones,  87- 
88;  Runuey  and,  100-01, 
105-03 

WaUuga,  Fort,  19 

Waters,  Dr.,  of  New  Madrid, 
builds  schooner,  95 

Watson,  Elkanah,     of     New 
York.  81,  83,  S«,  37,  54 

Wayne,  Anthoajr,  (7 


Webster,  Pdatiah.  and  settle- 
ment of  Northwest.  S 

Weiser,  Conrad,  M 

Welch,  Sylvester,  139 

Wetland  Canal,  12,  155,  180. 
188, 1«9 

Wetttm  Engiiuer  (steamboat), 
188 

Wntem  Inland  Lock  Naviga- 
tion Company,  31,  36-37 

Western    Maryland   Railway. 
18 

Westfield  River,  Old  Bay  Path 
along,  13 

Westover,  stagecoach  driver, 
122-23 

Wheeling,    western    terminus 
of  Cumberland  Road,  119 

White,  of  Pennsylvania    31, 

40,  43 
Wickham,  Nathan,  49 
Wilderness  Road,  47,  50 
Winchester   (Va.),  traU  from, 

Wisconsin,     development    of. 

164 
Wood  worth,  Samuel,  TkeHunt- 

<r»  of  Kentudcy,  62-63;  Tk» 

Old  Oaken  Budiel.  62 

YadUo  River,  trail  on,  19 
Yates,  Judge,  and  Erie  Canal, 

127 
Yoder,  Jacob,  64-65 
York  Road,  52 
yorkioim     (steamboat),     181. 

182 


Zane,  Ebeneser.  47.  88 
Zanesville  (O.),  granU  to  Zane 
near,  47 


